#stanning ships involving Black women is so hard for no reason

[literaryspinster]

I see like 20 objectively gorgeous new fanarts for the fake lesbians from that Ahs*ka show every day (no hate to the shippers I’m sure they would make excellent real lesbians) but there’s only a handful of (also objectively gorgeous) art for limoreau so far. Why must I always starve? 😫

[multimetaverse]

HSMTMTS 3x08 Review

Let it Go was a decent ending for S3 and charts a course for the rest of the series. Let’s dig in!

Well congrats Rina stans. I don’t ship them but the rest of the series is now intertwined with Rina so I hope they are well written. Given Tim’s track record with main couples the fact that Rina got together in 3x08 means they’ll have a breakup in S4.  It’s noteworthy that all of Gina’s callbacks are from like two eps in S1; it’s time for a proper story line for them, no more love triangles or emotional cheating. I’ve always held that Tim shouldn’t do both Rina and Portwell but now that the damage is done it’s time to stick with Rina and move the show forward

As I said back when the Portwell off screen first kiss happened, it was done that way to deliberately undercut Portwell and not take away from Rina hence the show treating this much more like Gina’s first kiss

Well they allowed EJ a flash of realistic anger towards Ricky but then he calls him his brother which is just not how people, let alone teenagers, would act. Certainly Ricky has been a malign influence on EJ’s life the past year in universe. I hope no one reading this ever has a brother like Ricky!

 Cash Caswell wins the coveted Lynne Bowen prize for worst parent of the season. At least Val was there to comfort EJ, god knows where Ashlyn’s been this season

Dara killed it as Elsa. Kourtney has come such a long way from Nini’s sassy black friend and I’m glad she’s getting the chance to shine. Her anxiety story line has been fairly well handled for a Disney show

Big Red being interviewed for some reason and coming out as bi felt like a fever dream. This season has certainly been a huge step forward for lgbtq rep on Disney. And to be honest it’s a wise move, Big Red was never believable as someone who was exclusively interested in the charms of women. This should set up some interesting story lines for Big Red and Ashlyn in S4

End of an era as Nini departs. It was poignant farewell to Olivia Rodrigo who was such a big reason why the show took off as it did. Her giving the lotto ticket to Ricky was a sweet touch and her farewell to Miss Jenn hit hard

It’s darkly funny that the casting directors did too good of a job of casting Ricky and Nini as they were the couple the series was built around and their chemistry turned out to be so good that Olivia and Joshua dated in real life which led to an extremely messy and bitter breakup which was the inspiration for the songs which launched Olivia into pop superstardom and irrevocably changed the course of the show

Looking Ahead:

One of the biggest flaws of this show is how little continuity there from season to season.  Years from now when the series is long over I can’t imagine many people re-watching and making it all the way through since so much of what has happened in these first three seasons, in particular the first two seasons, has been rendered completely meaningless. 

S2 in particular seems like a total fuck up and I think a lot of people in the future who might check out the series without knowing anything about it will tap out after S2.

It’s clear that Tim is trying to set up a Glee like route where younger kids like Emmy get introduced and we follow them through High School even as the original wildcats begin to depart. But that should have begun in S2 which is when characters like Jet and Maddox should have been introduce but instead all the new S2 characters were purged. On one level its simply a question of time, the first two seasons comprise 22 eps and the remaining two seasons the mains are contracted for will only amount to 16-18 eps depending on whether S4 is 8 or 10 eps. The first two seasons will likely be the bulk of the entire series yet they bear almost no resemblance to what the series has and will become

S3 marks the final end of the core 4 inasmuch as it even existed past S1. EJ seems to be recurring in S4 with Tim making it clear that he won’t be involved at East High though I suspect he’s involved in the HSM 4 production at some point. Sounds like Jet and Maddox don’t show up immediately at East High since Tim says they need to clear things up in California. Emmy seems likely to enroll as a freshman at East High as Tim hinted. He’s also made clear that he views Ricky, Gina, Kourtney, Ashlyn, and Carlos as the core characters so we should expect the rest of the series to have a heavy focus on them

They seem to have 8-10 eps for S4. If it’s 8 it’s going to be extremely difficult to balance all the new and old characters. Kylie Catrall joins and Big Red, Seb, and Miss Jenn are back as mains. Are Mike Bowen and Mazarra back? And whoever from the OG cast returns though without Zac and Vanessa it will be a flop imo

I’m not looking forward to the kids getting famous. This show was such a hit because it was always grounded. I also worry that they’re going to go way too meta in S4. At least Tim has promised that they’ll return to the acoustic songs that made S1 so fun

S4 is when the cast contracts end. Tim clearly wants to do more but how many seasons would Disney be willing to greenlight, just one more to bring the series to Ricky’s graduation? There’s a very good chance that Disney just calls it quits after S4. Did Tim fuck up the logical series ending point of Ricky, Big Red, and Kourtney graduating by having a summer season? He very well could have. Ending the series in December of Ricky’s senior year would be very lame but that’s what we might be facing. Certainly it’s bizarre to do HSM S3 as the winter musical when it’s so focused on graduation and it will extremely hard to top having an og cast reunion while the kids get famous from the frozen documentary

We’ll probably have to wait for spring 2023 for S4 to premiere. In the meantime there are quite a few good shows to watch. There’s Di4ries on Netflix, a very charming Italian show. Young Royals S2 comes out in the fall, the first of the Owl House ‘S3′ specials comes out in October with the remaining two airing sometime in 2023. The Mighty Ducks: Game Changers S2 comes out later this month and hopefully Doogie Kamealoha MD S2 comes out sometime this year. There’s also Chucky S2 coming out in October which I know will make Jevon stans very happy. Secrets of Sulphur Springs S3 likely comes out early in 2023 as well

For any American readers, I urge you to vote in November. The democrats at least have a good chance to hold the Senate and it’s vital that they control as much of the Federal government as possible for as long as possible if America is to stand any chance of warding off fascism or civil war

Stay safe out there Wildcats and I’ll see you next season

[blackgirlsuperherorants]

With more articulation, I'm ready to talk about why the push for Lokius simply bothers me, and this can be said for other m/m or w/w ships that fans push to be canon so hard just because they ship it.

It's the framing. The framing that if Marvel doesn't do it (or whatever the brand is), it's because homophobia, and if other fans don't like it/ship it, it's because homophobia (even if they ship other queer ships and are queer themselves.) And the biggest problem with that is that it overshadows the REAL issue of lack of queer representation on screen in mainstream nerd media, especially from big things under the Disney umbrella (Marvel and Lucasfilm/Star Wars, especially.)

It makes it bad that your ship isn't canon instead of bad that there haven't been any queer romances on screen in the MCU.

And like, as a writer myself, I find myself dissecting the stories of other media all the time. I can watch an MCU movie or series and pretty much assess what direction the story is going in by the narrative points they're hitting. I knew Sylki was basically gonna happen (even if just a kiss) because narratively, that's what the show was doing as soon as they had that "what is love" conversation on Lamentis-1. It didn't mean I liked it. But I knew it was happening.

Similarly, there's no romantic undertones to Loki and Mobius. None. For Marvel to make them a couple, it would mean they'd be doing it simply because the two present as men and it would make stans happy. And while there's something to be said for fan service, it would be annoying to watch them cram two guys together who aren't romantic in the slightest. I'd much rather see Loki meet some guy and have the same type of undertones they were giving to Sylvie and form a real bond to where the kiss feels earned and warranted. Not just put him with the nearest man because "he gay lol."

And how you guys are claiming it's being queer that makes you want this is beyond me. It's not being queer that makes you want this. I don't want queer characters that fuck everyone of whatever gender(s) they're attracted to even when it doesn't make sense for them to. I want real love stories. I mean, yeah, sometimes we can have a slut character, because that's fun, too, but that's not even what y'all think Lokius is. You seem to want them to be in love. But why? Because he's the first friend Loki made that isn't through Thor?

I hate that, too, because I hate this idea that queer people cannot have friends of their same gender without wanting to fuck them. IDK how y'all are, maybe y'all are like that, but I almost never have wanted to fuck any of my friends. The only few exceptions have been when I tried to befriend someone I had a crush on (in which case, usually the friendship can't work, really, because I have a crush on them.) I also think it's okay if you can have casual sex with friends, or if you have a friendship that develops into romance, but Jesus, do you people not have friends that you don't want to fuck? I am bi, maybe more pan (gender kind of doesn't matter to me, I guess) and I'm friends with people of all kinds of gender identities and like... I love them as people, which is why they're my friends, but I DO NOT want to fuck them. Especially my closest friend. I talked about her, before, here, but she's like my sister. The thought of fucking her is gross, to me. Not because she's gross, but because it feels incestuous.

Loki shouldn't want to fuck Mobius just because they developed a friendship. And that's very much how it's written on the series. They almost dislike each other (or Mobius is at least indifferent to Loki) and then they become friends.

That's not to mention the power dynamic that exists, there. And I know some of y'all are subs, but yeah, it's a bit gross to imply a sexual relationship with Loki's captor.

But on to Sylki. It sucks that I feel like most of y'all hate Sylki because Sylvie is a girl, and not just because it's bad in other ways. Like, the reasons Sylki is bad have less to do with "it should have been Mobius" and more to do with it being a lazy 1980s action movie plot that should have never happened. I'm not as creeped out by the selfcest (as many of you wouldn't have been if she was a he, I'm almost positive), but what's bad about it is that they couldn't have a strong female lead character without her being the love interest of the main guy. She didn't need to be, especially because she was a Loki variant, anyway. There was no need for it to have romantic undertones, and there was no need for them to kiss. It was sexist more than it was homophobic (and I can't help feeling like y'all are kind of being biphobic in this case. Maybe I'll talk about that, later, but yeah.) It was sexist bullshit. And there's valid criticism that Sylvie is underdeveloped. She's just angry and something for Loki to project affection onto.

I was also hoping they'd do a "found family" type of thing with Sylvie and Loki and let her be like the sister he never knew he needed, but no, they had to go trope and make her the love interest. It was lazy and bad and basically went "If Loki girl, main Loki want bone!"

Basically, having the main character fall for a character just because of their proximity and gender is bad and I hate it (and it would have been bad with Mobius, too, but yeah.)

Both the Mobius and the Sylvie thing also feel kind of racist, to me, because the show has prominent Black women who aren't even presented as desirable to Loki. And y'all, of course, ship him with anyone but the Women of Color. Y'all can pull true love with Mobius out of your ass, but he couldn't possibly fall for the Black women. lol.

Anyway. Not every show needs ships, and this show shouldn't have had any. I hate it. It's bad.

I guess on the biphobia front, I have heard some takes that it's not biphobic because Loki being queer in the MCU which hasn't shown any queer relationships, and Loki being the first openly queer character means they shouldn't have shown him with a woman presenting character. Which, I guess I get where you're coming from... but I have also been in fandoms for a long time and I see mostly girls saying this shit, which is what leads me to feel like it's simply jealousy. It happens all the time when a long-beloved single male character/celebrity suddenly starts dating a woman. Everyone hates it. And like, we haven't seen Loki be with ANYONE in the MCU, because mostly he's been doing villainy and his dating life hasn't been relevant. If the demigod says he's bi, he can kiss a woman. Especially a woman version of himself. Like I said, I hate it for other reasons, but pretending it's because he should have kissed Mobius is utterly delusional. He probably shouldn't have kissed anyone. Not in this series. There was no reason for any canon romance, especially because the show has a season 2 and we'll have time to see Loki develop earned, deserved romance with someone.

I'd much rather see them create a character just to be his boyfriend than have y'all push Marvel into making Lokius canon, which is a nonsense ship that only happened because Mobius is the only prominent male-presenting character before we meet the other Lokis.

My sincere wish is for people to remember that their ships are just ships and to enjoy them without getting all self-righteous about it. I TOLD y'all that Lokius wasn't gonna be canon like 4 episodes back, and here y'all are acting shocked and like Marvel took something from you. NOBODY expected y'all to ship Lokius. It's not even queerbait.

You can make clear arguments as to why Sambucky was queerbait. It's there in undertones in the actual series.

You cannot watch Loki and tell me you thought it was queerbait, unless you think men can't have conversations or hug goodbye without being romantically involved. Which means, in my opinion, that you need to learn about healthy masculinity.

Again, this is not a defense of Marvel. They DO need to let characters be queer, for real, and not just by saying " A bit of both". Like, let Loki be queer. Let Deadpool be queer. Let these queer characters be queer on screen. Yes.

But please stop making it about your ship. I'd rather see a flashback of Loki dating a guy and see him kiss someone he loved back on Asgard than watch y'all force Lokius. Because my queer rep is not about your crackship. It really isn't. And the fact that y'all keep calling us homophobic for not liking your ship REALLY needs to be addressed.

Like, when will y'all stop? I got on Stucky shippers about this shit in the past. All of us gay as hell, too, we just don't like YOUR ship. A lot of us like other queer ships. A lot of us like queer ships in other fandoms, too, and even have queer OCs. YOUR ship just ain't it. Stop forcing it. Literally, most of the ship wars between MCU fans have been queer ship vs queer ship, not really queer ship vs straight ship. Like, the number one Stucky rival ship was Stony. Not Steggy. People are not homophobic for not wanting your ship.

Sometimes it's because they ship something else.

And sometimes, like me, it's because they want something to make sense narratively and not happen for the sake of it happening. It's always better writing to have a character meetcute a new love interest than to magically turn a platonic friendship into a romantic relationship. Like, even when the characters are straight. Like, when Moesha dated Hakeem. It was just weird, even if he was kind of a great boyfriend. He was just supposed to be her friend, and people didn't really like it because it didn't fit narratively.

And that's why ships for the most part should be left to fanfiction, with the exception of a few where fans are right to call out the writers for not making it canon because it's clearly bait (like what happened to Destiel shippers. To see Lokius shippers compare themselves to THAT was so ridiculous. Destiel shippers had a decade of evidence only to be let down by a criminally unfair ending. Lokius shippers saw two men have a deep conversation once and lost their minds.)

Anyway, I'm not saying don't ship Lokius. I don't even hate it, really. I just think it obviously shouldn't be canon, and fans pretending like they were robbed of it is ridiculous. Literally, Ao3 exists for this reason. I will never see Steve fuck Sam Wilson, so I wrote it into my fanfic. I am not mad that they didn't actually date in the main MCU storyline.

[halfemptygirlrps-archive]

Polyamory CAN work (long post)

As a black, queer woman who could very well be poly, I am always looking for content to feed my soul and have for a few years now. I know I grumble about white/het couples a lot which makes me sound some kind of way but I ship a ton of white couples, that isn’t the problem. It’s the way representation is stepped on these days with toxic white couples being seen as true love that upsets me. And this is coming from a chick that lowkey ships Reylo.

I don’t understand and never will why writers in 2020 think that the only demographic there is are the people who can’t handle seeing anything but a white male and a white female be together. Interracial relationships CAN and DO work and f/f or m/m relationships or any race CAN work, so guess what, so can relationships involving three or more people and while difficult, it can work, even if the people are different races.

My annoyance also stems from Poly woman really getting shat on when writers hit a wall. Very few times have I seen it work out and that’s so stupid to me because she shouldnt’ have to choose.

I start with Wynonna Earp, a CLEARLY Poly woman with a strong sexual appetite that never gets shamed. She loved both Dolls and Doc and though Shamier left the show effectively forcing her to Doc, they still made it clear that she was poly and capable of having feelings for more than one man when they brought in Charlie. He was patient and sweet and while all three men wanted Wynonna to themselves, they NEVER gave her an ultimatum and even while PREGNANT WITH ANOTHER MAN’S BABY  Dolls still loved her and held her in bed. I believe that had Shamier (Dolls)  not left that they would have went on waiting for her to choose but also letting her know that she didn’t have to.

Then there’s my first real Poly stan, Bo Dennis from Lost Girl. Unapologetically bisexual and poly, Bo was in control at all times, both of her relationships and her sexuality. While she needed sex to feed like a vampire needs blood,she also enjoyed it and didn’t view it as a curse or burden and her partners were alwasy consenting, which was amazing. Lauren never shamed Bo (in fact she praised her sexuality and wished she could keep up) for liking men (thus not being toxic to bi women, which is an issue in the community I wont get into) and Dyson, Bo’s male lover never pressured her to submit to him. Here she is pictured with Tamsin, Dyson and Lauren, all her lovers, at once.

If all three of them can be respectful and understanding while each of them were with Bo alone, not a quad, then why do they make it seem so hard to have three people love each other? And yes, I know that couples break up, but on Tv they just dont need to when it’s what a show is based on.

I could go on about Bo all day but I will move on to one of my favorite movies: Prof. Marsden and the Wonder Women.

Now real or not this story had everything. It showed how slowly and steadily they grew to love each other, the highs and lows and the shame of the community that made them all stronger together. Was there jealousy at times, yeas, but they addressed it and learned that they didnt’ need to be and that they could all be together happily and that it could be easy to be in love with more than one person. Sure, it was the 40s but in this day and age it’s nothing to hide, and if they could have a happily ever after back then, why couldn’t it happen now? 

Could it be because of race? Without kidding ourselves, we know that every fandom is capable of being toxic and that it’s just fact that the black girl is often hated. I call it the Iris West treatment, where the clear canon couple is hated and the black girl is trashed for the white option. I quit Supergirl after Season 2 but I hear that Jimmy’s sister is getting said treatment now from a friend that still watches and I am not surprised.  You can’t force an actor to stay on a show and I get that having their ship destroyed build animosity, but I really can’t help but feel like had the other girl been white it wouldn’t have been such a huge issue. A Stefan vs Damon issue none the less, but still, less so. I say that because I have seen actual people defend Mon El in that fandom but saying “what’s wrong with owning slaves?�� NUff said. 

Another reason I bring up why it could be race is because of You, Me, Her.

I really enjoy this show and will be sad to see it and and while I recommend it, there are flaws, but none of these flaws seems to be that the three of them can’t work past it and get back together. 

Emma and Jack are married, Izzy comes in and shakes up their world and they both fall ass over elbows in love with her and her with them. They go through the usual things:jealousy, favoritism, hiding their relationship then coming out, but they always work through it. When Jack leaves to date an ex, he comes back. When Emma leaves to date and ex, she comes back. When Jack and Emma think about moving away and Izzy doesn’t want to, they come back. When Izzy has a thing with a co-worker, she still chooses Jack and Emma because they know they all need and love each other. They even have babies together! Izzy sees the sonogram and her heart stops. She realizes that she is going to be their actual mom and they all get married and even look into tri custody because they know they are a family and that it’s not an odd man out type of thing. They try it with other people and with just one another but they know where they’re hearts belong. It works. Does it work because they’re all white? NOPE

Sense8 was a brilliant show. Here everyone was represented and it was such a shame they killed it. Still, they showed us that sexuality can be fluid and that a fandom can be supportive. Raj and Kala married in spite Kala loving someone else. They never made her choose and in the end, they accepted that she was poly and wanted both and guess what? The two guys even fell for each other! Here is a white, bisexual male with his Indian partners. India isn’t the greatest with being gay so for Raj this must have been stranger and scary but they both made him feel safe and comfortable, loved and supported and in the end it was canon that they were all going to be together and learn as they go. Like with You, Me, Her, the fandom is supportive of this and while we didn’t get much of Rajalagang, it is clear that they can work regardless of skin color, religion, and even long distance.

So then why not Polymarine? It was clear it tested well with the audience, haters aside, so what made them feel like they couldn’t carry on? Sure, people fall out of love, but in the show, they just didnt’ need to. Before Ryn Ben and Maddie were together without issue for almost a year. It was made clear every time that he was in love with her, that they had chemistry and that he was attracted to her, so how do they justify saying that this:

Wasn’t real and meant nothing? That this

Wasn’t the same?

If other relationships can survive and thrive then what is it that was so hard, so difficult for the writers that they remove the credit that they themselves paved the way for and throw it aside for something that has been done literally thousands of times? Why throw away what made you unique to fall in line? Why does a show about mermaids have to have this be the “realistic” thing?

[lokidyke]

🔥 - the MCU fandom. spill some tea

there’s so much to get into here so i’ll do my best

tony sucks! his first movie was good, he completed an arc by the first avengers, but after that, his character went to shit. post-avengers, tony should’ve taken a wayyy backseat. making him a main character in the entirety of what seems every other mcu movie post-avengers was just not good for his character, and the stories of everyone else in the mcu. also he’s capitalist scum, but they could’ve eased that in some way by making it clear that tony redistributes his wealth to people who need it (*ahem* much like bruce wayne, at least in his better stories, who’s constantly donating tons of money to orphanages and research facilities for mental health and programs to aid the lower class), BUT that never happened. tony rolls in his wealth like an entitled shitlicker and behaves like it. his stans are annoying and y'all need to calm down.

marvel shippers… most of y'all are fucking nasty. pedophilia, incest, fetishization, misogyny, and racism running wild like it’s cool. holy shit. stony isn’t a fucking thing, and thorki is completely unacceptable. christ, you guys are monsters.

stop picking sides from civil war still. it doesn’t fucking matter anymore. they both had flaws in their argument and tactics (some more than others), and the whole thing was a mess. best thing to come out of civil war was the introduction of t'challa. that’s basically it.

speaking of black panther, it’s like the biggest mcu movie ever made, AND the best, and i feel like y'all barely talk about it anymore??? i’m still fucking seeing civil war think pieces and shit, but y'all can’t even pretend to be interested in black panther??? holy shit. hype him and his crew more. they deserve their sequel to be hyped and highly anticipated and talked about, and no other marvel character should be involved (bar maybe bucky as white wolf/some happy gay greasy villager living on the edge of wakanda, but that’s just my opinion).

also like. when will we accept that scarlet witch is a bad character, and elizabeth olsen is a shitty actress and shitty person. fuck. stop hyping her. her and black widow both are just practically unbearable at this point. they’re not the only women in the mcu anymore. y'all are like “okoye, nakia, shuri, gamora, valkyrie, mantis, nebula who? we stan white blonde women only”. carol danvers is an acceptation because, much like nebula, she is a big ol’ dyke! we stan!

also like. why are all of y'all pretending like you always hated the gotg movies? you used to stan harder than anybody. i fucking know y'all did. now you have to pretend you always thought they were trash in order to not taint your pure woke reputation? come the fuck on. the gotg movies are good. obviously not without flaws, but they’re fucking good. y'all wrote entire essays about why they were good, don’t pretend they were just movies full of fun colors and 80s music. holy shit, the hypocrisy. that being said, we stan the rock as drax!!!

also the reason people like the avengers more than the x-men is because the x-men have like three good movies max, not counting deadpool. stop shitting on people who don’t read the comics. sure x-men probably have better comics and better characters than the avengers in the comics, but the movies? they been beat. sorry about it.

hmmm. bruce banner and the hulk are two separate people with different personalities, and you should appreciate both. also don’t fetishize their individual relationships with thor. they’re cute mlm, not your kink. same goes for stucky and like. every other m/m ship in the fandom. fuck off.

and are you fucking kidding me??? ironstrange??? the straightest, most annoying and unbearable characters in the mcu, and y'all want them to fuck??? oh my actual fucking god. y'all don’t care about mlm at all, you just want your faves to fuck and it’s annoying, makes no sense, and stupid. tony and strange are straight, strange is annoying, and tony is… don’t get me started on his love life.

speaking of strange, he should’ve been played by an asian man. he then would’ve been a lovable mlm magic icon. instead we got one of the most intolerable on screen personalities as a character who seems way cooler in comics, and i just!!! holy fuck i wish i could like strange because magic is cool shit but. he fucking sucks! thanks for nothing, benedryl cucumber! your stans are annoying as shit!

same goes for wanda and pietro. they should’ve been played by romani jews. a lot of you go hard at elizabeth olsen over it, which you should, but i see a lot of you got nothing to say about aaron taylor-johnson. i know he was only in one movie, but y'all still stan mcu quicksilver with a vengeance, i can feel it. stop it. get some help. stop being hypocrites.

that’s all i got to say for now i think. i could probably complain forever about marvel freaks but i’m spent. sarah thank you so much for this ask ily i needed a good rant to get my brain moving properly today, oof

[kekeslider]

obviously if you have other poly ships involving L/ance and/or A//ura and nobody's saying anything, hating women and minorities isn't why people are so uncomfortable w/ ka//urance (especially since K/eith and A//ura have such a racist arc in the show)

Mm you’re mixing up the context for these different things.

The post about different poly ships was in reference to this ask. The point being that no one minds poly shipping until it’s kallurance specifically, and they come up with fake woke reasons like bi stereotypes to excuse themselves, when in reality they just don’t like kallura. Which is fine and their business, I don’t care (especially because I’ve said multiple times now that they’re not romantic in my kallurance anyway). It’s just really dumb and rude to come to my inbox and list all the reasons you don’t like something that I ship.

Going off of that, let’s backtrack a little bit. Because I wasn’t talking about kallurance at all when I got this ask. This was someone who was going through my blog, found an older post, and brought it up again just to say that they don’t like it.

The ask saying that people who hate kallurance and allurance hate women and minorities is in reference to that previous ask, and it DOES hold up. That isn’t just about kallurance, that’s also about allurance. The way people talk about allurance really does show their whole asses, especially when it’s klance shippers. We see klancers all the time say, “their relationship is rushed,” “Allura is using Lance as a rebound,” “Allura ending up with someone makes her weak, she’s a strong independent woman that doesn’t need a man,” etc etc and we know that it’s a poor defense mechanism because klancers feel threatened by allurance, so again they make up reasons to hate on the ship. Now, I’m sick and having a hard time keeping my thoughts straight enough to structure this response, but I definitely believe there’s a lot of internalized misogyny and anti-blackness that goes into not liking allurance, even in fanon. I won’t talk about the latter since I’m not black, but internalized misogyny is something I do know about, and it’s been rampant in fandoms since forever. Fandoms are made up largely of girls and women, but most popular ships are m/m, and there’s a lot of different reasons for that, but one of them is how much people don’t like female characters and will pick them apart at any opportunity.

So not liking kallurance is one part not liking kallura, one part not liking allurance. Hating kallura is a treasured tradition of the voltron fandom. Their relationship in the show is obviously not great and people talk about it all the time. And yeah, s2 looked really ugly and racist, and the fandom response of Keith stans calling Allura racist was really incredibly fucked up. But I also think it’s kind of dumb to say that Keith’s actions in s2 only reflect on his relationship with Allura and not him as a character. That is, if Keith was inconsiderate and racist in that situation, he would be in other situations as well, and therefore he’s a bad person, and he shouldn’t be shipped at all with anyone. Or you can just say, “God these writers suck” and move on.

It’s just really weird to me, you know, that everyone is allowed to say “fuck canon” and take their ship and run, but apparently I can’t? Like I don’t mean to harp on this, but I’m not even shipping Allura and Keith. I’m shipping Lance with both of them at the same time because I’m a Lance stan and I like the idea of my 2 favorite ships happening at once. I haven’t even suggested that it can or will be canon, like at all. It’s just a fun fanon shipping thing I’m doing and frankly it’s none of anyone’s business.

I’m not saying other people need to like the ship, it’s your business if you don’t, but keep it out of my inbox. If you’re going to come to me and say all these reasons why you hate it, I’m going to defend it just like anyone else would with their ship.

[yuckubus]

disclaimer: i love all my mutuals and respect their opinions, y’all will be missed if you decide to unfollow after i pour my judgmental heart out

1. the most well-rounded member of bts, is hoseok. yall can argue that it’s jk, but i said what i said 

2. minghao with a mullet is godtier; out of all the male idols with mullets, he is The king. 

3. speaking of seventeen, a lot of their songs are very edm-inspired but it works really well for them 

4. woozi deserves recognition for the songs he produces, like i really hope he gets an award for his production skills bc he’s amazing 

5. i feel like most wonwoo stans, stan him for his beauty and not his talent (which, he’s not a bad rapper)

6. that being said, i wish he (wonwoo) played around a little more bc his flow is kinda predictable. not only that, but he can do more than just rap lowly and get loud.

7. seokmin/ dokyeom > jungkook, in terms of vocal ability. he’s just better 

8. imo, in terms of like younger groups i guess? leader wise, namjoon is the best leader. im not saying other group leaders like scoups, for example, are bad at their abilities to lead, but i think nj really is. 

9. spring day, don’t leave me, the truth untold, best of me, and whatever else yall try to advocate as good songs...are not good. they dont do anything for me. sorry

10. also just one day is the superior rnb bts song. 

11. house of cards didn’t deserve all the hype it got. like, its good but it hasnt done anything for me since i heard the full version.

12. while im not as into got7 as i used to be, ya’ll took all the stuff that happened with got7 and RAN lol like yall really went in on them and still do and it’s sorta.. annoying? like i get why people do not like certain members (i really do!!) but its tired now. it has been for a while 

13. speaking of got7, if they did more stuff like just right (since it worked so well for them) and the flight log trilogy, ESPECIALLY turbulence, it would be effective

14. I dont know why people think lucas from nct is so dumb, he just has moments 

15. speaking of lucas, i dont see any purpose for him in nct. he doesn’t provide anything special or new except some personality and physical beauty.

16. sm either needs to get rid of some members of nct, or really talk to these niggas bc he doesnt seem to care about anyone but mark, taeyong, jaehyun, and doyoung...and sorta lucas 

17. jungwoo is a product of taemin. either that man is his father, or he’s a relative. 

18. in terms of like newer and young rappers, mark lee is the only one with some potential; sometimes, he lacks, but he really is the only one 

19. jaemin and jeno ended and revived kpop with their verses in Go! 

20. chanyeol and sehun go off in some exo songs, especially forever. they’re still not great rappers.

21. exo has the better vocal line and bts has the better rap line. i just ended every pointless, unnecessary fanwar.

22. the exo l x army beef is so..stupid like all of y’all look childish. deadass. it’s never that deep unless both sides really said some serious shit and, most cases they dont so literally shut up lol

23. astro’s danceline are amazing

24. JEALOUSY BY MONSTA X? SLAPS. HARD

25. kihyun’s voice is absolutely beautiful and deserves that recognition bc he really has such a beautiful voice 

26. Pentagon’s first album is THAT first mini album. if you havent invested time in it, please do

27. like the wonwoo thing, mingyu and wonho stans only stan these boys for physical attractiveness. I see something all the time (on twitter) anout wonho’s body and not really much about just him. this sounds fake deep, but forreal 

28. stan twitter in general has great memes and stuff, but they are quite literally, the worst set of fans i have ever seen. facebook fans and instagram fans are just evil too but stan twt is satan. 

29. in terms of talent level in twice...there’s 9 girls and only 4/9 really do something. i do love them though

30. tzuyu is great and shes so pretty but that’s it. the personality and everything else, where is it

31. imma be honest, i think chaeyoung is the prettiest

32. kyla isnt coming back to pristin, we all know this. it’s just time to face it 

33. people only care about like 5 members of pristin, and theyre all in pristin v...there was a reason for their creation lol

34. miss shannon, aka sungyeon, of pristin? she’s got lungs and deserves to be seen as more than just her round face 

35. MISS JOY is That member of red velvet

36. i dont think this is unpopular, but all the good rapper idols would be so much better if they just didnt sink into a niggaboo phase

37. ALL MEN WHO RUN ENTERTAINMENT COMPANIES (I.E. JYP, SM, YG, HITMAN BANG, AND WHOMEVER ELSE) ARE EVIL. IDC 

38. i dont,...really care for jennie; she overdoes the cuteness sometimes 

39. rose would be so much more powerful if she dropped the sza syndrome (I hope this isnt offensive, if it is please let me know)

40. if wendy wasn’t the leader and main vocalist of red velvet, her ass would have already been gone for that crap she pulled again

41. girl groups? are just as low down and dirty with their racism and antiblackness but that stuff gets hidden really well unless you look it up...or are mamamoo 

42. IOI SHOULD HAVE LIVED LONGER THAN WANNABE. no one wants to hear that shit, ioi was giving us bops but after that year was up, they couldnt wait to get rid of them...but wannaone still exists. ok

43. all the my idols are gay legends stuff is kinda annoying now... like...you dont know their actual sexuality, so stop trying to justify your weird ass argument with proof from 1997, it’s not cute (this could be said about yoongi, but i mean in general)

44. people dont see holland as more than his sexuality, and what i mean by that is, a lot of people dont care about him or wont until he starts interacting with male idols, so people can start shipping them with him

45. kpop stans do women involved with male groups so fucking dirty, like ya’ll cannot wait to tear them down due to your insecurities as a fan. You’re not marrying any of them, so pipe the fuck down  

46.nonblack stans, especially on twitter, dont really care about black issues lol yall do that fake oh my god im so sorry :( then use some form of aave with ?????????? and then move on. 

47. IF KPOP GROUPS WOULD JUST ACKNOWLEDGE AND PROPERLY APOLOGIZE ABOUT THEIR PAST ACTIONS, MAYBE WE CAN LEARN AND MOVE ON; BUT THEM AND THEIR COMPANIES REFUSE TO. it’s like trying to feed a baby who doesn’t wanna be fed 

48. people are allowed to still be upset about an idol’s past actions. it is valid ESPECIALLY if you are a fan of color. You are also allowed to unstan and not explain yourself bc no one’s gonna beat your ass for it. 

49. these idols and their companies dont really care about their fans as much as they want y’all to believe. i believe they care to a degree, but it’s exaggerated

50. none of yall are family; you can say it a million and six times, but you really only believe that if you are not a person of color.

51. ya’ll do not know these idols like you think you do; they choose what they want you to show, even in their “RAW” shows; they are not going to let you see them in their 100% real self, ya’ll are strangers to them 

52. being on kpop social media is exhausting, and idk how any of yall are able to do it 24/7. kpop is not that interesting enough for me to be around all day and all night. 

53. Idol groups that play instruments deserve the world 

54. that being said, i hope that n.flying, day6, and the rose get recognition because they’re out here being multi-talented, funny, and good looking. 

i have more opinions but these are ones i could think of. anyway, hope yall enjoyed my ranting. 

[bookishplays-blog]

some advice

so, you’re joining the hamilton fandom and want to produce content? great!! scared of the unofficial etiquette in this mess? let me help. (disclaimer: this is an UNOFFICIAL guideline. i’m aware that this fandom is a problematic mess that’s full of discourse and the only adult ones tend to be actual legal adults. don’t fuckin @ me saying that hur durr i’m wrong and should rot in hell. this is based off personal experience.)

-SHIPS •Most pairings are accepted. The main ones are Hamilton/Laurens, Hamilton/Burr, Hamilton/Eliza, Jefferson/Madison, Jefferson/Hamilton, Washington/Lafayette, Maria/Eliza (or any Schuyler sister rly) and Mulligan/Lafayette. These usually have the most content, but also contain the most discourse. There’s also some major minor character ships out there; Lee/Seabury, Lee/KG3, Seabury/KG3 etc. I found Eacker/Philip H smut once. This fandom is literally the reason why Rule 34 exists. If it exists, there is porn of it. •Polyamorous ships are widely accepted. I don’t ship any personally, but a few big ones are Hamilton/Eliza/Laurens, Laurens/Hamilton/Lafayette/Mulligan, Hamilton/Jefferson/Madison, etc. Basically, a lot of people like the idea of Hamilton’s cheating being converted into a happy, consensual relationship that’s polygamous, and that’s okay. (Please note I’m not equating cheating with polyamory. Hamilton being a dirty cheater doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with poly ships if you don’t want, but to me it seems particularly common, especially with the ships containing Hamilton and Eliza.) •And I know you want to ask; what’s not accepted? Hard question. This fandom loves its angst, so there aren’t many ships that seem untouchable. For the love of God, though, don’t write anything that’s incestuous. I’m talking father/son, sibling/sibling. Don’t make any of Hamilton’s kids end up with the characters in the show. No, Washington/Hamilton doesn’t count as incest, although I personally can’t stand it. •BASICALLY, don’t be a dick. Also, bear in mind that James Reynolds is the Umbridge of this fandom. If you portray his relationship with Maria as anything less than abusive, there will be riots. I’ve yet to see an (educated) James Reynolds apologist.

-CHARACTERS

•In terms of physical appearance, this fandom is a little wishy-washy on guidelines, unofficial or no. Tip: don’t whitewash if you’re drawing/writing them as their musical characters. Just don’t whitewash in general. This fandom seems to be okay with historical-era fanart and fanfic, which usually involves the characters looking like they did historically, but don’t romanticise them. Don’t romanticise them in general, but especially if you’re making them historical-era. •SPEAKING OF ROMANTICISING, these characters were BAD PEOPLE. Jefferson owned slaves, Burr owned slaves, Washington owned slaves, the Schuylers owned slaves, evidence points to Hamilton owning at least one slave. Don’t let the Alexander apologists fool you; they were bad people historically. Don’t refer to them, ESPECIALLY I HISTORICAL CONTEXT, as ‘cinnamon rolls’. They were misogynists against the rights of women and minorities. Don’t forget that, no matter how much you like their characters. The Jefferson you like is portrayed by a black Jew; the Jefferson in history was a racist with a history of sexual assault and a slavery apologist. •KEEPING THAT IN MIND, personality-wise, what we get from the musical is a little murky. Peggy is a great example of this. Fanon Peggy is very outspoken, sarcastic and a typical millenial. In the musical, she’s shy, hides behind her older sisters and very cautious. This is because of the fact that a) Peggy’s vocals are only apparent in one song through listening alone and b) historically Peggy was very similar to fanon Peggy. THIS DOESN’T MATTER. PORTRAY THEM HOWEVER YOU THINK SUITS BEST. Don’t let the musical force you to make Eliza’s main trait be 'nice’. For all you Laurens stans out there, it’s okay to let him have interests other than art, turtles and Hamilton. Feel free to give them depth, complexities, flaws. Not only is it fucking refreshing amongst the collection of bland chatfics and high school AUs that seem to reduce each character to a single trait, it’s good for original character practice as well. •THE SCHUYLER SISTERS get their own section. If you’re doing something historical, remember that they had other siblings. It’s generally agreed that Angelica and Eliza were closest, but Angelica and Peggy and Eliza and Peggy are shown in the musical as being close too (see Angelica dancing with Peggy and hugging her in Satisfied, and Peggy helping Eliza put away her letters and being dragged along with her in Helpless and The Schuyler Sisters). Sometimes it seems that fics reduce them to plot devices, minor characters or love interests; I won’t go all 'SJW!1!1!1’ on you but they are their own people as well, and flesh them out. (This problem is not as common in artwork, since art of them tends to focus on them either as a trio or Satisfied and Helpless companion pieces starring Angelica and Eliza.) Also, fun fact that this fandom seems to have overlooked - all three of them could play instruments. -REVOLUTIONARY SET AND DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS. Things to remember include Madison and Hamilton being friends before Jefferson showed up, Jefferson and Lafayette being close, Mulligan historically being Hamilton’s biggest hypeman (oh, I wish I was kidding) and Laurens and Lafayette being close friends. As for Burr, he’s traditionally relegated to the strange outsider by the fandom. This is more of a personal view, but Burr started off as a member of the Revolutionary Set, and progressed into a Democratic Republican, and this fandom likes to forget that. -THEODOSIA JR. Theodosia is never seen, only mentioned, which basically means everything about her is fanon. Literally. The only confirmed thing about her are her parents. This means Theodosia is good for inserting an audience-type character into; she’s an empty vessel, essentially, so anything you do to her involves zero fact checking. BEAR IN MIND that Theodosia is usually shipped with Philip, and that some members of the fandom will have expectations of her. Ignore those people. Theodosia is a shell of an OC, so as long as you don’t murder her in childhood or something, there’s no real discourse you have to be wary of. (Apart from Philip/Theodosia discourse, which is apparently a thing? But there’s discourse in practically every ship, so by all means, ignore that too.) •UNMENTIONED/UNSEEN CHARACTERS. I’m talking Ben Franklin, John Adams, James Monroe, Governor Clinton, them. John Adams appears to be universally hated, John Jay is often used as a filler or plot device, and the others are just used as names. Don’t bother about continuity with them.

-SOME COMMON AU IDEAS •High School/College Modern AU. This is a big one. There are flaws in it, namely romanticising too much and relegating major characters to 'minor’ status, but it’s so widely used that it’s good to know if you’re new here. •Modern Government/Law AU. Another big one. Not as commonly used because ugh, research and maturity, but there’s a massive pro to them - more complex themes and 'child’ characters can be added because the main lot are usually older. My personal favourite. •Chatroom AU. What it sounds - no real fic, just usernames and text speak. Good for laughs or plain fights, but bad for complex emotion, fluff, angst, or major plot. Also, they clog up the tags of less major ships, especially on AO3. •Soulmate AU. A variety of soulmate AUs exist, but essentially boil down to having some kind of matching mark, etc. Amazing for angst, fluff, plot and character development, but not so great for humour or multi-chapter fics. •Domestic AUs. Exactly as they sound. Massive fluff traps, no real substance but they’re amazing if you’ve had a shitty day and need something to cheer you up. Fan favourite.

So there you go! Everything you need to know if you’re entering the Hamilton fandom, give or take a few things. Don’t bash ships, don’t romanticise them too much, and take Ron Chernow’s content with a pinch of salt (he’s known for 'not finding’ easily accessible content regarding the women of the Hamilverse). Good luck!

[ghostofmoriarty]

Fictional Favorites Tag Game

I was tagged by @yourgoodfriendraichel so here goes  I am going to follow in Raichel’s footsteps and put this under a break, because oooh boy did it get long  1. What is your MBTI? It changes every time I take the test, but  INTP /INTJ are my most common results 

2. What is your Hogwarts House? Ravenclaw. I’m quite the academic these days.

3. Are you a book person or a TV person? I love books on principle, but I love tv so much and it’s so much more CONVENIENT.  (this is @yourgoodfriendraichel‘s answer, but it’s so 100% accurate, I’m keeping it) 

4. What is your favorite book series? Harry Potter will always have a special place in my heart, as will Percy Jackson and Cirque du Freak. I love Dirk Gently (Douglas Adams was an amazing writer through and through) and Sherlock Holmes because I am garbage for a good detective story.  ASOIAF and the entire Tolkienverse (LotR et al) are some of my favorites. Oh! And The Sparrow, there was a sequel so it counts as a series. I haven’t read the sequel yet, but The Sparrow was legitimately one of the greatest books I have ever read and I am super excited to check out the sequel when I have a few days off of work that isn’t dedicated to mowing the lawn (it's been raining sooo much here)

5. What is your favorite TV series? I love so many tv series. Aquabats! Super Show! will always be in my top 10. I am garbage for TURN: Washington’s Spies even though I think it’s kind of terrible, oooh and Dirk Genty’s Holistic Detective Agency, can’t believe I forgot about that one, I was literally just talking about the books. And no matter how angry I get at Doctor Who, I will always return to watch the new season (this last season was really good, thank god) but I think Classic Doctor Who is a thousand times better than the reboot

6. Which fantasy universe would you most like to live in?  I don’t know, because in any universe I won’t be the hero (I’m not even the hero/protagonist in THIS universe, so why would it be any different in a fictional one?) so I would need one that I could live happily and not be incinerated by dragons or forced to fight some nobleman’s war. Yeah, I’ve managed to talk myself out of every fantasy universe I could think of. How about Harry Potter? Yeah, sure Hogwarts has a scarily high student fatality rate for a high school and there’s a massive war every couple of decades that wipes out half the generation, but magic would be fun. I think I would take a short life with magic over a long life without it (assuming that I don’t end up a muggle or a squib, of course)

7. Favorite character ever? Finn from Star Wars, Sansa Stark from ASOIAF (note: ASOIAF and NOT GoT), Prince Charles Edward Stewart from Outlander…. That’s a really weird one, but Outlander was one of the most horrible (and uncomfortable) shows I have sat through but I really loved Bonnie Prince Charlie?? He was just an idealistic ray of sunshine in this bland, bleak wasteland of a tv show. He wouldn’t make the list if my hatred for the show was any lessened, but because I hate the show so much, my love for him is exemplified immensely. Anyway, Theodore “TBag” Bagwell from Prison Break, the entire cast of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Pietro Maximoff (and 99% of all XMen), Sauron, etc. So many.

8. Character you would like to personally slap in the face: Abe Woodhull from TURN: Washington’s Spies. He’s terrible, through and through.

9. Character you would like to personally murder: CHLOE FROM LIFE IS STRANGE. I WOULD HAVE MURDERED HER SO HARD IF MY GAME DIDN’T GLITCH ON THE LAST LEVEL.  *she’s a terrible human whose manipulative and abusive. WLW deserve better options in both general representation and romanceable wlw characters in video games

10. Character you would gladly intern under:  Any of the Xmen (can I be a plucky assistant who has a really lame super power but still tries to help, please???)  OOOOOH and Larten Crepsley from Cirque du Freak (I LOVE HIM, YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW also he is in my top 5 favorite characters of all time, so I can’t believe I left him out in the fave character section)

11. Character you would totally have tea with: I don’t drink tea, but I’d probably go on a late-night coffee run with the entire Star Wars cast or Aquaman. Aquaman probably hates coffee though, so The Riddler? Edward Nygma seems like an “up all night anxiously drinking coffee while finishing up some project (probably a criminal scheme)” kinda guy.

12. Character that you feel really needs a hug: The entire freaking cast of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (note: the tv show, not the books)

13. Character you love that you would probably hate irl: Most of them, to be honest. I am drawn to horrible people in fiction. Simcoe, TURN: Washington’s Spies (note: tv show version, not real-life verson); T-Bag, Prison Break; Cesare Borgia, The Borgias;

14. Character you would realistically be friends with irl: Ken, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency 

5. First character you had a crush on (if any): Jack Sparrow………

16. Favorite ships: ooooOOOh boy where to begin…. DISCLAIMER: when I say I ship things, I just mean I find the dynamic between the 2+ characters interesting and compelling. I don’t necessarily feel that they should be a canonical end-game romance (or even a romance at all), nor do I stan the relationship as healthy for either of the characters, nor do I feel that these relationships (platonic, romantic, or otherwise) should be heralded as a beacon of #goals to aspire to. I literally mean “hey those two have a cool dynamic, I wanna see more of that” -Master/Missy (I’ve been calling it “MASTERbator but I don’t know what the official ship name) (Doctor Who) -Anna Strong/Hewlett (TURN) -Foggy Nelsen /Matt Murdock (Daredevil) -Abe Woodhull/ Robert Townsend (TURN; note: Rob is too good for Abe but Rob’s reactions to Abe are too perfect to not ship) -Sansan (ASOIAF; I ship this 100% platonically) -Jaime and Brienne (ASOIAF; this is 100% not a platonic ship) -Finn/Poe -Han/Lando (we have NEVER heard the details of that card game, is all I’m sayin’) -Edward Nygma/ Oswald Cobblepot (Gotham/ DC; this is legit the ONLY reason I continue to watch Gotham. Everything else is garbage, but these two’s relationship, man. It’s so compelling, they’re so in love and so unwilling to put their differences and murderous tendencies aside to make their relationship work. I have so many feelings about this ship, okay)

-Joker/Batman (LEGO Batman; it was so beautiful, guys)

I have so many more, I don’t even know

17. Series (TV/book) that you feel ended terribly:  Harry Potter’s ending is literally a meme now, so I won’t do overboard explaining that one. BUT, The Hunger Games. Okay, so this fucking series has a female character who is constantly talking and thinking about how she doesn’t want any children, and how she doesn’t feel like she should be a mother, which is pretty progressive right??? Also, 2 and a half fucking books are building up to an end all war/ revolution and It’s gonna be the biggest damn thing ever, right??? WELL how does this book series end??? Katniss, the FUCKING  NARRATOR, gets hit in her head and blacks out, so she (AS WELL AS THE READER) misses the majority of the final battle, and THEN this series reveals that Gail (the less useless of the two potential love interests) may have caused the death of Katniss’ sister, so he leaves and Katniss chooses Peeta for no other reason than “well, I’m 17 so I should settle down with SOMEONE and you’re within proximity, so I guess you’ll do” and they get banished to District 12 where Katniss mothers a bunch of children because what else are you gonna do but fuck, and basically the entire ending is one piece of bullshit after the other (ALSO THE MOVIES FRAME THE ENDING AS “KATNISS IS NOW A MOTHER THEREFOR SHE’S REACHED HER POTENTIAL AS A WOMAN, ISN’T THIS A HAPPY ENDING” and fuck this entire series)

18. Series (TV/book) that had so much potential but was actually an epic disaster: Literally everything I watch. Dr Who, TURN: Washington’s Spies, Gotham, Sherlock, Game of Thrones; But hey, that’s what fanfiction is for

19. Worst book/movie/TV show you’ve ever read/seen: Ooooh I’ve read and watched some TERRIBLE things in my day.  Outlander. Outlander was pitched to me as having 18th Century Scotland and TIME TRAVEL. Some of my favorite things, aaaand it ended up being one of the worst things I have ever seen. 90% of it is just boring, but the other 10% involves, in my opinion, really poorly handled sexual assault. I won’t go into details here, but it was bad.  

Also, Borgias was fascinating, but bad. And TURN: Washington’s Spies. Honestly, I watch a lot of period pieces because I think the clothes are pretty or I am interested in the time period and/or historical events in which its set around, but then 99% of them are all really poorly-written soap opera-y dramas with nice sets and costumes.   20. Favorite book from your childhood: Harry Potter

21. 3 Favorite Tropes: Complex Family Dynamics (I think that’s more of a category of tropes than a trope itself, but I love me some fam drama), Happy endings for gays (that’s not really a trope, but it fills me with love and happiness every time it happens –which is rare), oooh I don’t know. I can’t think of any right now, but I do love a lot of tropes, I promise.

22. 3 Most Hated Tropes: Bury your Gays (killing off gay characters for no reason), Rape as empowerment (ie: when the narration treats a sexual assault as a motivator for women that “makes them stronger”); Man Pain (when a woman is assaulted/ threatened by the antagonist, and the main male-protag uses it as “motivation” to fight the antagonist. The story doesn’t allow the female character who experienced the trauma to be the focus of the story/arc, her traumatizing experience is not about her, it is ONLY there to develop the male character she is close to; the story essentially treats the male as the real victim)

23. Scariest thing you’ve ever watched/read: James and the Giant Peach

24. Anything you’d like to recommend? Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (please send me a message if you want to know what it’s about, it’s SO GOOD. It’s fun, quirky, unlike anything else, and it has a diverse cast including characters who are poc (and woc), characters who have disabilities, women who are badass, none of the women are ever sexualized at all, it has corgis, and mysteries, and scifi, and it’s just a big adventure. (I also recommend the books, and the 2011 tv series Dirk Gently)

25. Would you like any recommendations? I’m game for anything. I love period pieces, fantasy, science fiction, TIME TRAVEL, quirky detectives, gory things, child-friendly things, honestly as long as it has interesting characters I am game. I don’t even need a good story, just characters.

  Heeey I am terrible at tagging people. If you want to do the thing, please do! And tag me so I can read it :) Also, if you actually read this whole thing, then you deserve all the gold stars, thank you!

[fuckyeahwintershock]

Author Spotlight: AnnieMar

Hello again! This week our nomination comes from previous spotlightee (it’s a word, go with it) @leftylain​. She nominated @anniemar​ who’s well known for cooking up a batch of hot stuff for us to devour.

Here’s what she had to say:

01. What about Wintershock as a pairing appeals to you?  

The muse is strong with them. Many of us identify with Darcy for a whole host of reasons. I certainly do. For me, it’s because she’s snarky. She’s got a quick wit. She makes fun of people to their faces in both covert and overt ways. She’s sarcastic as hell, and I identify with that. If sarcasm flies over your head, you probably won’t like me very much in real life. Either that, or I will just confuse the hell out of you. I just can’t help it. I didn’t start writing Darcy until I’d seen Thor: The Dark World and that was the movie where I really fell in love with her, because they gave her a bit more story to work with. I’d always loved Kat Dennings, since she was in 40 Year Old Virgin and that scene where she’s screaming at her mom about wanting to have sex with her boyfriend. Not many young actresses could have pulled that off. She’s very memorable and interesting. Doesn’t look like every other actress out there, and she’s hilarious. She made Darcy totally outshine Jane, for me anyway, and that fascinated me. Here was this brilliant and gorgeous main character, Jane Foster, and all I wanted was to know more about her best friend.

And then you have Bucky. You could say that I definitely have a type. The misunderstood bad boy. Some of my dudes are more misunderstood and more bad than others, but there’s just something compelling about them, especially (and perhaps only) when they are played by brilliant actors. There’s Bucky of course, there’s Loki, Daryl from the Walking Dead, Eric from True Blood, Rollo and Ivar from Vikings, etc … and for me it goes back all the way to Han Solo. The Rogue. The guy who shoots first but underneath it all, he just needs a hug.

I don’t know what that says about me. Probably nothing good ;-)

And so you have these two characters, Darcy and Bucky, who’s differences can be explored in a meaningful way and how those differences can make them grow. There’s the potential for so much. For serious feels, for growth and discovery, for humor, for AMAZING sex. You know, the whole enchilada.

02. How did you first encounter the pairing?

It was a few years ago and I was an exclusive Tasertricks girl, but I felt like I had read every single Loki/Darcy fic out there, and some of them several times, so I was thinking that I needed some new blood. I asked my Tumblr fam if they had any good Wintershock or Shieldshock recs, and so then I spent the next few weeks mesmerized with all these new stories. I realized that I’d put myself into this hole, limited myself, by only reading Loki. It opened up so many more possibilities. I still didn’t write my own Wintershock for quite awhile, mainly because I felt guilty for cheating on my OG Marvel ship, but I got over it pretty quickly once I actually started writing Bucky Barnes. And now I feel like if you want to write more than one ship, that’s totally cool, it just opens up new and interesting challenges and makes you a better writer.

03. Do you have any specific Wintershock headcanons?

For me, Darcy gives Bucky the room he needs to deal, but on the other hand, she doesn’t let him mope around. She’s not afraid of him. She calls him out. She makes fun of him, doesn’t pity him, treats him normally, like she would anyone else, and he loves her for that. He never thought a girl like her would be in the cards for him at this point.

And then Bucky is one of the only people that can match Darcy’s wit, and so they battle. They love to battle. They also both love and enjoy the little things. I feel like Darcy is someone that’s usually up for anything, I mean, she followed Jane around in the desert and then hung out with her in London, she’s cool. She’s smart and resourceful. She can hang anywhere. Adapt anywhere. She’s definitely a cynic but she also loves experiencing the world. She has passion. And then Bucky has learned to find passion in the tiny details of life. I keep thinking about his room in Bucharest and how he loved his plums at the market. He was so excited about those damn things. And he doesn’t have much, but he’s got it all perfectly placed around him in a little haven, and you can tell he cherishes it all. And so because of those traits, they really enjoy spending time together and discovering the world through each other’s eyes. They balance each other. Bucky has a way of breaking through Darcy’s cynicism and then she has a way of inspiring Bucky to be present. They have the ability to open the world up for each other.

I also feel like Bucky’s old-fashioned sensibilities secretly make Darcy melt. He opens doors, insists on paying the bill, etc., and on the outside Darcy is all “It’s 2017, man, women’s lib happened and you must have been asleep”, but on the inside it makes her feel cherished. She probably wouldn’t admit to that though. And when he does stuff like wins her the biggest stuffed animal she’s ever seen at a carnival they happen upon, she can’t stop smiling, even though it’s a totally cheesy scenario. Bucky just does that to her. Makes her reevaluate romance, as she was pretty sure it was actually a myth before meeting him.

04. Do you associate any particular songs with Wintershock? If so, which one? 

Oh man, I have whole Spotify playlists dedicated to Wintershock. Let’s see … it’s hard to choose. More melancholy ones are “Lucky” by Radiohead and “Coney Island Baby” by Lou Reed. A more upbeat song, and one that’s inspired by Sebastian Stan’s love of 80’s music is “The Promise” by When in Rome … and then I can’t not mention “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” by Stevie Wonder, it’s the one I’ve been listening to while trying to finish my next Classic Combo chapter. For reasons.

There’s also music from soundtracks I listen to while writing, because sometimes people singing can distract me, but music definitely helps me focus. The soundtrack to Inception, Oblivion (M83) and then the tv show The Leftovers have this sort of beautiful continuous theme that’s very meditative and sort of repetitive and helps me focus. I will put a few songs in a loop, zone out, and then somehow I have several thousand words in a doc.

This is a really long answer to a simple question, sorry. Get me talking about music and I won’t stop.

05. What Wintershock fic by someone else would you recommend to others to read? What about this fic appeals to you?

When I first started reading Wintershock there wasn’t a huge amount of it, so I read ALL OF IT. You know how it is, in the beginning of a ship, or when people are starting to fall down the rabbit hole of love for a certain character. Like … even the fic that some might normally skip over because they involve things you’re not that into, could be a/b/o, AU, or soul-fic or high school fic or some specific kink (these are just examples), but I didn’t care. I devoured it all. And the one that really stood out for me was The Importance of Pop Culture Awareness by Bionically Ironic. She is amazing and very witty in her writing and I love her. The fic was just so different from anything else at the time. For me, it was innovative. I was laughing out loud, which is rare for me. Darcy was hilarious. Bucky was funny. He laughed. He smiled. He was already a part of the Avengers fam. He’d been deprogrammed and was in recovery, and while I seriously enjoyed reading author’s interpretations of his journey through HYDRA’s mind control and coming back to “Bucky Barnes”, it was amazing to read about him being happy again. It warmed my cold black heart, and was definitely an inspiration for how I interpreted Bucky’s character in my own fic. Her work gets the highest of recommendations from me.

06. What kind of Wintershock story would you love to read that hasn’t been written yet by you or others?  

I’d like to read some future “fix-it” fic inspired by the comics. I’d like to read about “Bucky Cap” and Darcy together, perhaps trying to figure out a way to save Steve (who could be “dead” or in a coma, or lost his serum somehow, or trapped in an alternate dimension, etc.), because in my mind, Steve Rogers will always be Captain America. And so then on their journey to discovery THEY FALL IN LURVE. There’s just so many interesting possibilities to explore. What does Bucky’s new Cap suit look like? His new arm? Does Darcy have input on the design? Is there sex happening with the new suit on? Does she cry for a million years because he cut his hair? Is Sam Wilson around? Can we have a Bucky/Sam snarkfest and Darcy just loves to watch them together while eating popcorn because they’re so damn entertaining?

Hmmm. Giving me ideas. NOT GOOD. I have too many WIPs to finish.

07. Out of the Wintershock stories you’ve written, which is your favourite, and why?  

All of my fics feel like my children in some way and it’s hard to pick a fave kid. I also don’t have a ton of Wintershock fics, or really a ton of fic, period, compared to a lot of authors. I can be a pretty slow writer at times, or write things over a million times, or just get stuck on something and let it sit for weeks at a time while my brain mellows out.

Classic Combination is dear to me because it was my first exploration of Bucky. I already had lots of time with Darcy with Tasertricks, but getting inside Bucky’s head was a lot of fun and also frustrating at times just because of how complex he really is. There’s a point when you write a character and they just somehow come to life for you, and he did that pretty quickly for me while writing Classic Combo. And I love writing Darcy as a Sydney Bristow-type. I have the whole thing mapped out and I’m pretty excited about where it’s going and how it will end. And the sex. All that’s mapped out too. I practically have diagrams for it ;-) I still can’t believe I haven’t had them totally do it yet. I really need to rectify that. And soon.

And then there’s Easy Chair, which was meant to be a one-shot, but turned into a longer thing, as shit tends to do with me. It was just fun. Totally fun. No pressure. And in that respect it’s my favorite.

08. Quote a favourite extract from one of your stories. What is it that you like about it?

From Classic Combination:

"We should be best friends, James Buchanan ... because that's what we are. In the story of Captain America, greatest hero of our times, and Jane Foster, famous Nobel Prize-winning scientist, and a god's one true love … that's what we are. We're the classic best friends. We're the sidekicks. We should be the main characters in our own story."

That pretty much sums Wintershock up for me. Two sidekicks who deserve better, deserve so much more tender loving care, getting their very own story. And we, the Wintershock fam, tell that story over and over again in so many amazing ways. And I feel so lucky and blessed to be a part of it.

Mod note: still wanting nominations, please and thank you.