#the content creator ships them but doesn't want to make them canon so the platonic enjoyers can still like the content | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

antimony-medusa · 1 year ago

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Okay so here is the thing. Apolgies, I was not able to respond to this in a concise way.

If you personally do not want to engage with NSFW content because the creator doesn't like it, that is baller. I can 100% see why someone saying "that's weird, no" puts a crimp in your style whenever your brain might want to wander that way. And maybe your brain doesn't want to wander that way at all, that's also cool. You setting your own boundaries within the fandom as "no smut for me for these guys" is a great thing to do for your own safey and comfort.

However, I am really hesitant to say, as a fandom-wide rule, that I as an event runner and discord mod should go around implementing, that we should go ahead and ban all NSFW works because a creator doesn't want to engage with it.

First point: I'm talking about characters, not creators. RPF is an entirely different kettle of fish. By definition I am talking about a different guy than the person behind the mic. I know the line can be closer to RPF with MCYT than it is for say, Marvel Movies, and this can even vary from guy to guy, depending on how hard into the roleplay they go, but we are still, deliberately, engaging with a different canon reality than the person who pays taxes as a streamer.

The nature of fan works, I am arguing, is that the creator doesn't get final say on what the entire fandom does with their little guys, because they're essentially fictional characters. They made them up, and then we take them and get to put them in situations. And some of the situations are for the fandom, not for the creator. If off in the corner, archive-locked, someone is writing about someone getting knocked up, I don't think the creator of the character gets final say on if that exists, because the creator should never know about that. That should be for the fandom, and not the creator, and everybody opts in or not as per their comfort level. And we should never make the creator opt in by shoving it in their face to condemn it. That's rude.

Second point: the specifics of what we actually have from the creators as regards work that is likely to make someone uncomfortable varies like, wildly. The first aspect of that is whose boundaries we have. Some creators we don't know anything about their opinions on NSFW because they stayed off social media. And some people interpret that as meaning "it's fine just keep it away from streamers" which is what hermitcraft does, broadly, and some people interpret that as mean "we can't do anything without explicit consent," which is what DSMP did, which then leads to people violently policing what counts as NSFW work, doxxing, harassment, mobbing, and (incidently) all the stuff that the streamers also said they didnt want to happen in the fandom, but it's fine because it's enforcing the shipping boundary? Trying to find clips of streamers giving permission or not not only encourages people to TTS and thus forces the streamers to engage with shipping and nsfw content, which I think is extremely rude and boundary-breaking, but also ends up in people circulating old and out of context clips to again, harass people (which the streamers don't want! None of this is what they wanted! It's just more suffering!)

And the second aspect of that is which boundaries we have. Everybody came right out of the gate and asked about shipping and porn, (which again, I think we should have never forced streamers to engage with that, they should have been able to pick for themselves if they ever even acknowledged that), so we have answers on them, but my point also is that there is some perfectly platonic stuff that also has the potential to make someone wildly uncomfortable, and we never asked about that, and we shouldn't, because that should be kept over here, and the creators should be over there, and the two should never meet.

Like if I was banning everything that potentially made streamers uncomfortable from my events, there is a lot of perfectly platonic stuff that would be on that list. Extreme torture, people being depicted as domestic abusers, aging down characters into babies and coddling them, characters depicted as bigoted— like that is all also stuff that would go over like a lead balloon, I feel. But I don't feel that it's a good idea to make up boundaries for streamers, so I'm left with only banning these few things that we actually (rudely! we never should have done this!) forced the streamers to weigh in on, while stuff that is also again, intended for an audience of fans and not for creator consumption, because it would be weird for the creator, slides right in.

I think the focus on NSFW content as the worst is a bit of a distraction while like, psychologically breaking someone in detail in a horror story is also, rationally, not for the streamers. And we know that, we have stuff that's tagged as dark (or tooth-rotting fluff, as the case may be), and we keep it off to the side already. So while we have a big section of the fandom that we're already going "ehhhhhh maybe not for those guys", I don't think it's a worse idea to allow kissing content, as long as it's kept where the streamers never have to see it.

And idk maybe that's especially ace of me, but seriously I don't get why saying "i love you" with a little kiss has people being mobbed, but depicting someone as a physically abusive or neglectful parent is fine? Is it just because we never asked if we were allowed to depict someone as an abuser? Because we all understood that that would be rude to ask and we should just keep that over here? Why did we think it was a good idea to ask about porn? Why is consentual sex the end of the world but I can open twitter and find threads stories about philza minecraft abusing and killing his son tommyinnit?

So, while I absolutely understand where you're coming from, my first priority in dealing with fan content is reducing hate mobs and making sure the streamers don't have to see anything they haven't chosen to engage with. So I think a healthier way to approach the question of boundaries and content is not "what are we banning here" and making creators weigh in on weird stuff they should never had had to think about, but "what are we making sure to keep away from the creators" and honestly I think the answer should be most of it. Keep the fandom space for the people who want to put the characters in Situations , and don't force the creators to engage with any of that at all.

I just have vauge thoughts about Fandom, and Creator Notices, and Boundaries, and I'm just gonna ramble for a second here.

Okay, so you end up really liking a show or event to the point that you want to make something for it, generally you want to show it off. You want to share it with other people who like the show or event, and have them go !!!!!!!. That's fun, that's normal. We all want to be enthusiastic about [show/event] together. That's our starting point.

Enter social media and official actor/streamer/writer accounts.

Now fan artists, a good portion of the time, can make their art and then thanks to the wonders of social media, they can go straight up to the actual people who made the show and show their art, and have them go !!!!, and get the actual creators to like it. Maybe not if they're drawing hard gore or NSFW, but if you're drawing a soft canon family moment, or a cyberpunk au, or behind the scenes look illuminated, or kick-ass character design, you can get a creator notice.

Fan writers, by and large, do not get creator notices. This is because looking at art takes two seconds, and reading a fic takes between ten minutes to ten hours. Creators can be out there scrolling art in a way that most of them, frankly, do not have the time to devote to Ao3 searches sorted by kudos. And I think among writers there's a little bit of a sense that that's unfair, and writing is just as much as art as visual art is, so we should be getting creator notices, and we should all act as though we might get a creator notice at any time. On all platforms. Cause what we're doing is real art, right? And we all saw the art get retweeted?

And this sense that creator notices— cause we've all seen them happen with art— spreads until we all think that they could happen at any time. Thanks to the wonders of social media. And very rapidly, the "you can get a creator notice" turns into "the highest honour is a creator notice", and we're all gunning for that, and you SHOULD be gunning for that. You should be looking for the creator to weigh in on your art. You should make sure that there's nothing in your work that the creator doesn't like. If you're an artist, you shouldn't be playing with gender in your art, or draw them being tortured, or anythign NSFW, and if you're a writer, you need to make sure that you don't have anything "weird" in your writing. In practice, let's be honest, this just turns into demonizing NSFW work and saying that anything we don't like is NSFW. Looking at you the "you can't draw the streamers with boobs" discourse.

Anyways, I think going after creator notices is a bad idea for many reasons— a, let them rest, b, bad atmosphere for the fandom, c, let's be honest, an awful lot of fandom stuff is weird from the outside. Let it stay in the fandom.

First thing is like, there are only so many hours in a day. Fan artists can tag their people but it's SO much of a huge and rude demand on someone's time to ask them to read your fic and tell you if it's good. That's the request you make cautiously to your beta reader, and then everybody else on this planet earth gets to opt in to your work. Do not TTS stories to people, do not hand them copies at cons, like— if they want to find it they can find it.

Second thing, creator notices hovering over the fandom like a sword is not a good attitude for creativity. Fan work is supposed to be transformative, it's about taking the original work and going "oh but what if they didn't die" and "what if they lived in space" and "what if they were a family" and "what if they kissed". Gunning towards a creator notice at all times takes you from an independent person following your creativity to a contractor working under someone else's vision. All the time.

Trying to adhere to the source material isn't bad in essence, there's a spectrum of "how do you feel about canon" in fan work that ranges from "trying to hit all the same beats just with a twist" to straight up adversarial attacks, and all of that is fine and part of what fan works are. But if the only stuff that gets written is the stuff that we think the creator would approve of, a) that's stifling to both creativity and people who have an adversarial relationship with canon, you shouldn't start to be branded as "weird within the fandom" cause you're mad at a plot arc b) you very rapidly run into the issue where you're adhering to someone else's morals, and sometimes you don't agree with random person's morals. Anne McCaffrey famously said that fan works were okay as long as you didn't make any of the dragon riders gay. I guesture at you about that. Sometimes a creator is way more comfortable with NSFW stuff than you are, that doesn't mean you should feel forced to make NSFW stuff for their approval! You shouldn't have to 100% agree with someone's vision for an art piece to be able to roll up and go "yes but I think there should be like 50% more evicerations in here" and acting like the creators are the ultimate authority in fan spaces is a bad atmosphere for making fan works.

Sure, absolutely, showrunners get to decide canon. But the whole point of fandom is that sometimes I have a better vision for my story, and maybe I don't want to think about what the creator says at all. If I'm not gunning for the creator's approval, let me stay in my little circle with the creator blocked and adding more pregnancy to the QSMP, or whatever. Follow your bliss.

Third thing, like, okay. There has been a move in fan circles, and especially in mcyt circles, to say that if we just cut the NSFW stuff out, everything we're doing isn't weird, and the creators can look at it. I honestly think this is a failure of both imagination and perspective.

If you have written someone being vivisected, it's gonna be a trifle weird for the actor of that someone to come into contact with that. It is doubly weird if you're depicting a character who shares the same name as the actor. Is it bad to write the vivisection? No, this is fandom, we get to do terrible things to characters here, and that's not for the actors, that's for the audience of two hundred people who saw the words "Schlackity vivisection cannibalism necromancy" and said "clear my schedule, I know what I'm doing tonight". Awesome, continue with the gore.

And like, again, this isn't just NSFW. You can have something that is the fluffiest most platonic story in the world, and I'm saying look at me, look at me honestly, consider this; isn't it going to be just a little bit weird for a grown-ass man to open up a story where they've been aged down to four years old and they're lost and sad and their friends are their family and rescue them and there's cuddling and petting and snackies and pet names and they get their blanket and suck their thumb and take a nap. Look me in the eye and tell me that's not gonna be weird for an adult to read that about their character who shares their name. Okay? We're all on the same page here? Awesome. Is it bad to write kidfic? No. Kidfic rocks. I am your target audience, I am clicking through. I am leaving a keysmash comment. It is also, like, look at me here, focus— it's weird if you're outside the fandom. Platonic? Yes. for the actors/streamers? No. And that's because it's not FOR outsiders to the fandom, it's for the fandom. It's for people who rotate the characters so much that they go 'wouldn't it be sooooo cute if they were babies wouldn't it be adorable', it's not for the actual guys who had a meeting with an accountant today.

MCYT in particular has a horrible practice of saying that because everything has to be for the streamers, nothing can be NSFW unless they've approved it specifically, but somehow everything else is cool? I cannot express to you how much stuff I've read and enjoyed that even the smallest amount of thinking about should let you know that we keep that stuff away from the guys driving the block men around. Fine to write it, I say again, go for it. Please completely divorce yourself of the idea of a creator notice for it at the same time.

Should we show the streamers porn? No. We also should not show the streamers the thing where they're physically abusive parents of their friends. We should not show them the stuff where they're babies. We should not show them things where they're bigots. We should not show them things where they have hybrid instincts that tell them to kidnap someone. Really not sure about showing them a story where they're a cop who takes bribes. Like come on now. Really, as soon as you diverge from canon you're getting into stuff that's probably going to be weird for the crdeators. And that's why again, we don't show it to them, because it shouldn't be for them, it should be for the other people who are like "oh you're doing something fun with the character there, awesome" and click through. Weird for the creators, because it's for us.

Fandom should not be for for the creators. We can make stuff for the creators ocassionally, but I really think it's healthier for the fandom, and probably a lot less weird for the actors/streamers/writers, if we stop acting like what we make is all for them and should be shown to them. Some of it is just for us! That's fine! Make it for the people who have an rss feed for "autistic technoblade" on Ao3! Make it for the people who show up in your inbox asking about your "Philza gets arranged married to a different QSMP guy every week" au! ! Make it for the people who have three spellings of "charlie slimecicle" followed on Tumblr! Make it for the people making helsmit fancams! Make it for the fifteen people who suscribed to you after you posted that fic about the various wilbur bursonas kissing each other! Make it for the people who have Puffychu art saved to their phones! Make it for the fandom!

Leave the creators alone, make the fandom for the fans.

#discourse #long post #fandom meta

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demirose-colored-glasses · 1 year ago

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My page looks better on desktop

➳ I'm Ro. I'm in my late 20s. Please don't gender me. I'm a queer enigma. They/Them works just fine.

➳ My page looks better on desktop and I can't follow back, this is a side blog. I will interact though.

➳ I'm Demiromantic, for me this means that I can't feel romantic attraction towards people unless I have a close emotional bond with them, for me that's friendship/a platonic bond. Hence the joke in my title. (This doesn't mean I am attracted to all my friends, just that I can't feel romantic attraction to people I'm not close with.)

➳ Current hyperfixations/special interests: (most active in bold) Psych (coming back from childhoood), Glee, Stardew Valley, The Summer I Turned Pretty (I love all these characters and they can be as petty and messy as they'd like.), Arrowverse, Harry Potter (I do not support JKR and I fully acknowledge that the goblins are antisemitic, nagini and cho chang are offensive, and that her treatment of indigenous cultures is unacceptable)

Buffy The Vampire Slayer (I'm late I'm sorry)

➳ Flag in banner/background is the demiromantic flag color picked from The Summer I Turned Pretty cover.

➶ I post Demiromantic and other aspec headcanons. Mostly focus on demiromantic/demisexual though. These may be hot takes, and are strictly through the lens of my own experience and you don't have to agree, in fact I vibe with canon or whatever headcanons you may have.

➶ Feel free to send asks and interact in any way possible.

➶ I'll also make icons or color picked flags at some point if people want them. There aren't very many demiromantic headcanons.

➶ reblogging an edit or a fic doesn't mean I ship the ship, I just support Fandom creators. So if you see me saying I don't ship something, then you see it in my reblogs, I'm just supporting Fandom creators.

➵ Allies, non-queer, and people uneducated on queerness are obviously welcome, this is not, nor will it ever be a queer-only space. Despite this you MUST be able to understand that is a queer amatopunk space. It rejects amatonormativity. This means that despite loving the romance genre and experiencing some romantic attraction I will be critical of amatonormativity and allonormativity.

➵I am neutral on RPF most of the time but have zero interest and will not reblog it.

➵ I am neutral on "bad" fandom content existing. As long as they're not harassing real people I'm not even looking in their direction, they tend to trigger me so I don't engage.

➴ Despite being neutral on rpf existing, "Tinhats" can fuck right off. Especially if you talk to the people involved about it or in any way harass them. I hope you have a bad day every day forever.

➴ I'm typically not interested in large age gaps ships where one person is a teenager but I don't think they're evil or whatever fanpolice are on about. Also proshippers are racist trash 99% of the time so don't lump me in with those assholes either please.

🏹 My writing (Dead link for now)

🏹 My Media Takes/Overviews

Tags:

#demirose glasses on - headcanoning characters to be on the aspec in any way shape or form, sometimes used for general queer headcanons as well.

#demirose glasses off - just a general speculation post about a piece of media.

#my stuff - edits I made

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miss-choco-chips · 3 years ago

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Poison never tasted so sweet

Alex looks even more unsure of himself, looking around as if searching for help. Morgan can see, over his shoulder, the car parked just in front of his door. The Secretary is probably there, waiting, so why did the mob boss brave the dangers of customer service alone?

“Is this a ‘my condolences’ or a ‘this is a message’ occasion?” he prompts, feeling a little sorry for the guy. He’s obviously awkward in interactions where he’s not barking orders or threatening people.

(Not that I’d be opposed to being bossed around or grabbed by the neck by him, a traitorous part of himself whispers. He’s quick to wave the thought away. He knows when he has no shot.)

-.-.-.-.-.-

In which there's a tired secretary, a smitten mafia boss and a cute florist boy who's way too interested into poisonous flowers.

Or, the meet-cute you don't need but I wanted to write as a bribe.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Jeremy is just so exhausted. And worst, he can’t even complain to anyone. Not because people wouldn't sympathise. A handsomely paid job means nothing in the face of a tyrannical boss who has absolutely no regard for personal hours or boundaries as he demands unfaltering obedience and perfection from his, and he’s quoting, ‘minions’; he knows, without a doubt, that he could go to any bar in town, sit by the counter to complain to the bartender about his life, and make at least three eavesdropper friends who would share his woes and relate to him. Maybe find himself a nice guy or gal to spend the night with, joined both in carnal passion and occupational despair. Could even be his soulmate, who’s to know.

And still, he can’t. Because someone is bound to ask just who his despicable boss is, and there’s no way to sugarcoat the name Alex Createur. He’d be on the second syllable, and the bar would be already empty. And, knowing his luck, some dirty bastard would be scared enough of the boogeyman under his bed to even call one of his boss’ informants (there's thousands of them, all over the city; finding one is no hardship at all) and tattle. Not that Jeremy is afraid for his life (he’s made himself too indispensable to kill), but his paid time off might suffer the consequences of his whining, and that’s something he’s not about to risk.

So here he is, repressing the urge to yawn as he watches his boss angry storming around his office. Yelling to the unlucky soul on the other end of the line something about disemboweling and student debt-levels of stress, before hanging up and throwing the phone at a wall, missing his head by less than five inches.

Jeremy just takes his own phone out, placing an order for a replacement. Because he’s good, and universally known as The Secretary (the only one competent enough to survive under Mr Createur’s thumb longer than two years), he has a direct link to most shipping companies all around the globe, and they all know to deliver whatever he asks for with utmost promptness. They are well aware who he works with, and the consequences of making said man wait. No one wants to tell the right hand man of the biggest mafia boss of the country that he has to wait a day the reglementary 24 hours for his product to arrive, after all.

(And this privilege, Jeremy ABSOLUTELY abuses. Like when he’s home late, tired after a day of dealing with his boss’ latest temper tantrum, and all he wants is some pizza delivered at his door the second he gets out of his five minute shower? He will one hundred percent name drop his title to have the poor delivery man tear ass across the city, arriving at his door a sweaty mess with thirty seconds to spare.

He doesn’t have the best workplace environment, but man does the job have perks)

As an afterthought, he wonders what time he will get off today. Judging by Sir’s murderous frown and his clenching fists, he guesses not anytime soon. Fuck.

Oh well.

“Should I inform Matthew, Sophia and Rick that they are needed, Sir?” he asks, going through his mental list of which hit-people were on shift that afternoon. Because, unlike him, hitmen and hitwomen got to leave at the end of their scheduled time and be replaced with the next batch, keeping an ever flowing, cycling stream of competent killers on call. Lucky bastards.

Mr Createur actually stops at that, still heaving from his tirade. He stands still in the middle of his wine-color carpeted office, head tilted like a panther about to strike. The floor to ceiling windows, with a breathtaking view of the city from up high (as if Mr Createur didn’t already hold the high ground above all other crime families in the country), let in the reddish hue of the setting sun, making it seem like the entire room was painted in drying blood.

Lovely.

“No”, he finally says, voice deceptively calm and collected. Jeremy wants to groan, because that means- “I’ll take care of that personally.”

Yep, extra hours. Yay.

“Of course, sir. The car will be waiting for you as soon as you step out of the elevator. Should I prepare your preferred ‘tool-kit’?”

His boss shakes his head, void-like-black hair hitting the air like little whips with the movement. He pats down his suit, pristine already, because he’s secretly a theatre kid and lives for the drama. Jeremy almost expects to be ordered to find him a cat to pet as he plans his next big blackmail of a promising politician.

“That can wait. First, we need to buy some flowers.”

“...flowers, Sir?”

“To send to Mrs Lucinda. The poor woman is bound to be very sad when she learns about her son’s awful, horrifying, soon-to-happen murder.”

“... of course, yes. I’ll order those and meet you at the next location, then?”

“No. I want to choose them personally. Find me the closest flower shop; it’s been a while since I took care of these matters. It’s good to go back to one’s roots once in a while.”

Jeremy knows better than to ask something he doesn’t really want to know, but- “Didn’t you start your mafia career when you turned 12, Sir?”

“Yes. And?”

“...nothing, Sir. ‘Disaster Flowers’ is three blocks away, or we could go to ‘Sparkly Nature’, if you’d prefer someplace with better yelp reviews and don’t mind a ten minute drive.”

“No, the sooner the better. We can't have poor Mrs Lucinda wait too long.”

Jeremy privately thinks the woman won’t be too cross about her son having ten extra minutes of life, but he doesn’t care enough to actually voice his opinion. He just nods and follows his boss’ footsteps as they make their way to the elevator.

As expected of an establishment with a name including the word ‘Disaster’, the place is empty when they arrive. It’s most likely due to poor marketing, because the shop itself seems pretty okay. Flower beds cover every wall, an eye-catching spectacle of colorful variety. The floor is freshy swept, no dirt staining the green tiles except the parts around the pots in the center of the shop, with small trees that Jeremy lacks the knowledge to recognize.

“Hi! Just a moment, I’ll be with you soon!” comes a voice from behind the counter on the far end of the room, probably alerted by the wind chimes at the door.

Jeremy wants to use his Secretary title to transform ‘soon’ into ‘right the fuck now’, but his boss seems content to wait as he examines the flowers to his right, so he stills his tongue. Another time, perhaps.

He follows behind Mr Createur, paying attention to which flowers he stares at the most (the monster is totally capable of telling him to ‘buy what I liked’ and expect Jeremy to just know ). He’s so focused on memorizing colors and shapes that he completely misses the approaching man, until he’s standing right next to them, happily smiling up at Mr Createur like he didn’t just sneak up to the country’s most dangerous mafia boss. Not that Boss looked startled at all blinking down at the smiling man with something akin to wonder in his golden eyes that Jeremy was immediately wary of.

“Good afternoon, you two! What can I help you with?”

He opens his mouth, because Boss doesn’t normally interact with peasants, as he calls them, unless its to kill/

“Good afternoon”, he says, leaving Jeremy swallowing his words and surprise. “My name is Alex Createur. I’m just…looking”, he says, slowly, enunciating every word carefully. There’s a strange look on his face as he seems to examine every detail on the worker’s, like there’s something in his chocolate colored curls and almond eyes that caught his attention. Jeremy can’t see it.

The heavy name drop should have made the man pale and tremble. If he were sane or smart, that is. This employee is obviously neither of those things, because his smile doesn’t falter as he offers his hand, gardening glove stained with dirt and something darker (water?). Like Mr Createur would ever touch/

And he’s shaking hands with the florist. Had Jeremy fallen asleep on the job, was he having a fever dream? Or perhaps an hallucination?

“Cool, I’m Morgan Contenu. I own this flower shop, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask. I’ll let you browse at your own pace, but I’ll be over there watering the bloodroots if you need anything.”

And then he’s off to the other side of the store, step almost bouncy, audibly humming under his breath. Jeremy mentally tags him as ‘idiot without self preservation’ and turns back to his boss, expecting him to be fuming at the disrespect of not having the worker bending to his every whim.

He looks mesmerized.

Jeremy promptly turns his attention to the indoor mistletoe growing in a nearby pot. It’s probably less dangerous than whatever is going on inside his boss’ mind right now.

Despite Sir not even looking at it once, Jeremy picks a bouquet of Tea roses after a quick google search. ‘Love at first sight’ might not fit a mother soon to lose her son, but damn if it's not fitting for the mood in the car ride to the warehouse ten minutes later, as Sir looks out of the window and sighs like a sad maiden whose love left for war.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Morgan wasn’t expecting the cute dude from last monday to visit again, so he’s pleasantly surprised when he comes back from the back of the store after a quick break to find Alex there, alone this time, looking through his hydrangeas’ selection. Grace, beauty and abundance. Perfect for a man as obviously rich as he is pretty.

“Hey! You’re back! How is it going?”

Poor Alex looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Morgan almost can’t believe this is the most powerful mafia boss in the city. He’s way too adorable.

Because yeah, of course he knows who he is. He’d have to be blind or dumb to not recgonize the name, specially considering his stranged mom was still an active cop before he left home, and wouldn’t stop complaining about being unable to catch him.

Maybe it was his mom’s hate towards him (the enemy of my enemy is my friend?), but Morgan doesn’t feel threatened in his presence. Or maybe it’s the sleep deprivation.

“...Yes, good morning. I’m… flowers?”

Laughing a little, Morgan approaches him slowly, carefully dropping a bonsai on the nearest shelf on his way over.

“Yep, I sell those. What’s the occasion? I could recommend something based on that, if you’d like.”

( Not that I’d be opposed to being bossed around or grabbed by the neck by him , a traitorous part of himself whispers. He’s quick to wave the thought away. He knows when he has no shot.)

The business looking man looks at Morgan straight to the eyes for the first time since he stepped in, all curiosity and wonder. He seems… shocked? Pleased?

“You know who I am”, he mutters, softly, hand twitching. Morgan half-wonders if he was about to reach for his gun or to touch his hand. He hopes it was the latter.

“Well, yeah, I’m not stupid.”

“And you’re not… scared” it's not a question.

“Nah. Why would you hurt me? I’m just a florist, dude. You would gain nothing, so I think I’m safe. Unless I somehow offend you by being my usual informal self, in which case, my mom would be pretty pissed that the one criminal she couldn’t catch killed her youngest son the moment she retired; so it’s still a win in my books. Now, flowers? Did you kill someone, or are you going to? Give me something to work with here.”

“...going to. I want to send a message first, though.”

“Great! I have some poisonous flowers, those should do the trick. Marigolds, for example, symbolise grief, despair and mourning… oh! Morning glory, it means ‘death’! You need some of those in your bouquet too. Hmmm… Oh, bloodroot’s pretty deadly as well, and men used to make paint out of it to cover themselves with when they were courting someone, which could be pretty sick, as in a ‘you’re courting death by messing with me’ kind of way…”

Along the way, Morgan kind of forgets the whole purpose of Alex’s visit for a while, enjoying walking around his store as he points at his precious, poisonous babies and explains their meanings and uses out loud. The mafia boss, surprisingly, doesn’t seem particularly impatient, as he follows two steps behind, silent except from the few questions he asks (that end up encouraging Morgan to speak even more). He’s a captive audience of one, and he seems genuinely interested in what Morgan has to say, which is unbearably attractive.

(And that… might be a problem. Morgan doesn’t need more fuel for his dreams about the dangerous criminal)

In the end, after a whole hour of just talking his heart out about his plants, he finally sends Alex on his way with the perfect threat-bouquet, pretty and deadly (like the man buying it). As he’s processing the purchase, he gathers courage he didn’t know he possessed, and carefully plucks a purple larkspur bloom from the pot near the register. Slowly, oh so slowly, taking care that his movements are not threatening in any way, he reaches up and places the flower behind the criminal’s ear.

He doesn’t know who is more shocked by his daring, Alex or himself.

“That one is… on the house.”

Unblinking, those beautiful golden eyes not leaving Morgan’s simple brown ones, the dangerous man raises a careful finger to softly touch a petal, caught between his ear and dark hair. The contrast with the black strands and pearly white skin is striking against the purple.

“What does this one mean?” he asks, almost breathily. Not at all like someone who bribes and blackmails the president on a weekly basis.

High on nerves and adrenaline, Morgan lowers his gaze as he hands out the bouquet, so he can look back at Alex from under his lashes.

“If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Alex comes to the realization that he needs a new desk. The deep, rich mahogany, with it’s warm and earthy colors, makes him think about pretty eyes and soft looking hair, and he can’t even sign up a single paper without his mind wandering and then stuttering like the bumbling high schooler he never was.

But, as he asks Jeremy to place the order and proceeds to drop a match over the wood, watching it burn in silence, he knows he needs to get a grip on himself. If he keeps destroying things that remind him of the cute florist ( Morgan , his mind demands with the same hiss-like tone he uses when threatening his worst foes, call him by his name ), he’ll soon be without an office at all. The floor to ceiling windows reflecting the sun shining over the city evoke the memory of crystalline laughter, of a short, slim man leaning against glass as he waves him goodbye. The plush chair by the bookcase reminded him of the soft sofa they sat at, together, a few weeks ago, when he arrived too soon at the store and Morgan had to wait for a delivery to arrive before helping him pick his bouquet for the day. The polished white linoleum of the hallway leading to his office, so strikingly boring when compared to lightly worn green tiles.

The only thing safe was, ironically, the withering purple bloom, that he’d tried his best to keep alive for over two months now, even hiring expert botanists to make it so (under threat of death), but that was now on it’s last stretch.

He never did research on its meaning, though, too afraid of what it could possibly mean (or maybe too scared to hope).

Alex sighed, stepping aside to let the clean up crew crowd around his burning desk to put the fire out and exchange the ruined furniture with shiny new one (in a different color, of course). As he did, he walked closer to Jeremy, whose face, like usual, betrayed absolutely nothing.

“Jeremy.”

“Sir.”

“...I feel weird.”

“Should I call a physician, Sir?”

“Not that kind of weird.”

“...”

“...So a trip to Disaster Flowers is in order, then?”

“How dare you presume something like that!”

“Is that a no, Sir?”

“...Have the chef prepare something to go, and make sure it’s ready in ten minutes or less. I bet Morgan hasn’t eaten yet.”

It’s hard to tell with someone so damnably poker faced, but he’s fairly sure his secretary is smug. He should kill him.

… but then he’d have to go through the whole embarrassing ordeal of being known again with someone new.

Fuck. Maybe he should ask Morgan for his opinion? Last time, he killed the suspicious minion like he suggested, and it turned out he was a mole after all, so that was a crisis averted if he ever saw one. Morgan was so smart sometimes. Then he’d do something like drink conditioner on a dare and scare Alex half to death when he found him groaning into the ground, and make him wonder once again just how many times he was dropped as a baby. God he was so adorable.

“Oh… Uhm, sir?”

He had such a nice laugh, and he just got Alex’s sense of humor so well, not even flinching at his dark jokes or disembowelment puns. He even had some of those, himself! Like the time he closed the shop mid morning just so they could have breakfast together, and said ‘ They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Well, not if it's poisoned. Then the antidote becomes the most important’ as they left, dragging a surprised laugh out of Alex despite the awful morning he’d been having so far.

“Boss?”

And he was just the right level of unhinged yet caring that Alex had never known he craved in his life. For instance, when they stumbled across a cop he hated and told as much to Morgan, and he said ‘ I bet she can make you smile if she tries hard enough’ , and proved himself right as he pushed her over the banister overlooking a dirty lake, making Alex grin for the rest of the day.

“Mr Créateur…"

Oh god, or the time a girl kept hitting on Alex at the store, and he couldn’t just get rid of her because of the cops off duty who were browsing some bonsai trees on the other side of the shop. And then Morgan noticed Alex’s discomfort, smiled at the lady and gifted her with a beautiful flower crown. Mountain laurel, he’d noticed with a grin, a little knowledgeable about flowers at that point in their friendship. She couldn’t get through two more pick up lines, before she was throwing up all over the cops. It was glorious.

“Alexander!”

He stopped, ripped off his daydreams by Jeremy’s annoying voice. He wanted to punish the man (he knew damn well that was not his name, and how he hated to be called that), but the urge in his voice stalled his hand.

“What?”

“The men you stationed at the flower shop sent an S.O.S. Someone attacked. I can’t get back in contact with them, though, which probably means…”

Alex didn’t stay to hear the rest of the sentence. For the first time in his life, the stairs were preferable to the elevator (too slow to arrive), and he ran faster than he ever did down flight after flight, damning his own greed at making his building as tall as he did.

He’d stationed a rotation of guards close to the flower shop once he admitted to himself that his feelings for Morgan were there to stay, and that even if most people wouldn’t suspect the full scope of them, it was still easily visible how much he cared for him. And as a man renowned for his power and lack of weaknesses, his friendship with a random civilian would prove far too tempting for anyone aiming for his downfall.

For someone so powerful, so widely feared and respected, time was rarely relative in a way that didn’t favor him. Things took as long or as little to happen as he wanted them to, as he wasn’t afraid to maim or kill to make them so. And whatever little he had no control over, he rarely cared for. Which is to say, he never truly understood when people complained about a minute seeming like an hour, a second lasting as long as a day, until he had to run all three blocks separating his building from the flower shop. He could vaguely hear Jeremy following behind, listen to his growly voice as he barked orders into his phone, probably summoning his heavy hitters to escort them to their destination to take care of whoever was dumb enough to go after the one person he cared for, but it sounded like he was underwater. Felt like that too, like his limbs were too light but he had no momentum, no way to reach where he wanted to be fast enough.

He desperately needed to know that Morgan was okay. Or, alternatively, that he had enough bullets so he could put one for every single mahogany-colored strand of hair of his that was out of place into the attackers.

The flower shop finally came into sight, the stained shards of the broken windows shining under the lamp post just by the side of the entrance. Whoever it was, had obviously bought out the cops who usually patrolled these streets, because there was no way they wouldn’t have heard the glass breaking.

The night was deathly quiet. Usually, both deadly and quiet were words he appreciated. But in relation to Morgan, they only made him sick to the stomach. He didn’t slow down in his mad dash for the door, but it made his hand tremble (for the first time since he was twelve, way over his head as he decided to become the cruelest mafia boss in the city, then the country, then the world-) as he pushed it open. Heart in his throat, beating so widely it felt like being punched from the inside-

“Oh, Alex! Hi! I was waiting for you.”

Morgan. Beautiful mahogany hair, falling in a curly mess over his forehead. Almond-like eyes, crinked at the corners from his wide smile. Lightly tanned face-

Splattered with blood. Only, he noticed after a heart-stopping second, it wasn’t his .

“Oh, yes, these dudes”, he kept going, acting like Alex wasn’t a breath away from a nervous breakdown. For emphasis, he softly patted the head of the dude he was sitting over. Who was unconscious, arm bent at an impossible angle (broken, he thought distantly as he noted the crowbar on the ground nearby) as he laid face down on the floor. The second attacker, half a meter to the left, was groaning into what looked like a puddle of his own vomit, a vial of what Alex knew to be Morgan’s poisonous flower’s essential oils broken a few inches from his face, arms tied behind his back and legs spasming. His own men, who had apparently taken down the third and final attacker, judging by the bullet wounds on said man’s leg, were either dead or unconscious, laying against the far wall near the register.

Morgan himself looked unscathed, beyond some scratches here and there and a probably twisted wrist that he held close to his chest.

“They said something about you and a weak spot? I don’t know, dude, I saw guns and panicked. Those two guys, that I assume work for you, tried to fight them off at first, and I took that chance to grab my emergency kit.”

Alex, too stunned for words, made a sound that was probably closer to what a whale could do than a human thing.

“Ah, my emergency kit? I meant the poisons and crowbar, dude. I had a face mask, so I smashed my strongest paralyzer on the ground over there- yeah, I would step away if I were you, though the fumes are probably dispersed enough it's not dangerous anymore- and went to town on them with my crowbar while they recovered. Though that one over there had a very strong reaction and he was down and puking his guts out before I even finished with this one, so I only hitted him a little to keep him down while I waited for you.”

Morgan was rambling. It was as adorable as ever, but Alex, for the first time since they met all those months ago, couldn’t really focus on that. His body was battling both the anxiety and adrenaline still running wild through his veins, and contending with the growing, unparalleled attraction that was threatening to make him drop to his knees in front of Morgan and just beg for his hand in marriage. It was a very weird, very numbing wave of emotions, and he could absolutely not process any of this while still worried over Morgan’s wrist.

As always, dependable Jeremy stepped up when he was needed the most, reminding him just why he kept the annoying bastard in his employment.

“Sir, the hitmen are on their way to… clean up, and I have the actual clean up crew on hold to take care of the place once they are done. The car is going to be here any second now, and the driver knows to not care about any traffic law in order to get you and Mr Contenu to the hospital as soon as possible. The medical staff also know to expect your arrival, and they’ll be waiting by the door to escort Mr Contenu to whatever examination he needs to get done. Please go and rest assured, I’ll take care of matters here.”

God, Jeremy was the best damn secretary ever.

Still shaking a little, he helped Morgan up (from where he was sitting, on the back of the hitman he took down like nothing, god, that was so fucking hot) and half supported half carried him to the waiting vehicle.

“Thanks Jeremy!” yelled the shorter man when they passed him on their way to the door. Jeremy merely waved him off, already focused on his phone again, probably busy with damage control.

He’ll give Jeremy a raise, he thinks. After making sure Morgan is safe. And convincing his crush friend that the empty office building across the street from Alex’s own edifice was actually a great place to move his flower shop to. Because he just knows that, after tonight, he’ll develop the strongest case of separation anxiety and will need easy, quick access to him at all times if he ever wants to be competent at work again.

He’ll even redecorate his own office, walls full of bleeding heart’s blooms, and risk speaking up about his feelings, if that’s what it takes to keep Morgan by his side. Forever.

But for now, he has a revenge to plan, and maybe his favorite, devious florist with a knack for poison will be willing to help- it’ll be a fun, bonding activity. Or, if he gathers enough courage to ask… maybe a nice date idea.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Once again, Jeremy is way too tired and not being paid nearly enough for this.

But, when he gets home after dealing with the flower shop break in (henchmen tortured until they confessed who sent them, flowers moved to a safe warehouse until they could be relocated in the empty office bulding Mr Createur had bought to keep Mr Contenu closer, corrupt policemen removed from their part of the city, reporters bribed to just ignore the situation and leave Mr Contenu alone…), he knows he has one more task to attend to, before he can finally go to sleep.

Tired but reluctantly happy, he lets himself fall into his overpriced couch, wine glass in one hand, phone in the other as he opens a new google tab and looks into the best jewelry shops of the country. If they are not good enough, he’ll start searching for worldwide ones.

He wants to find out which one makes the best engagement rings as soon as possible. The Secretary has to anticipate his boss’ needs, after all.

#S&D tier #S Tier/Alex #D Tier/Morgan #Alex/Morgan #S tier/D tier #my writing #the characters are from lighthouseraider's tiktok series #where there's a d tier villain who's besties with an s tier one #the content creator ships them but doesn't want to make them canon so the platonic enjoyers can still like the content #so he bribes the fic writers and fanartist to make ship-y content for them #it works wonderfully #mafia au #flower shop au

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epickiya722 · 2 years ago

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I'M JUST DONE!! 🌌💥👊

No, 'cause I will never understand people who want Uraraka Ochaco aka Uravity to be nothing more than Midoriya's wife at the end of the series so they can have babies.

One, they obviously were not paying attention to the fact that this story is how Izuku became the greatest hero. Not him being a husband or a dad.

A hero.

As much as it's joked about, at the end of the day... MY HERO ACADEMIA ISN'T A LOVE STORY.

It's a Shonen about a society where people have powers. An action story! It DOES NOT NEED ANY ROMANCE TO BE A FINISHED STORY!

On that note, if you seriously want Ochaco and Izuku to be together at the end of the story just so they can have babies, go ahead and unfollow me. Block me. Whatever, just don't come to my blog anymore.

Believe it or not, Ochaco did not pursue her education to be a hero because of Izuku. She did it because she wanted to take care of her parents. Which as IIDA stated is rather selfless of her. (Agreed.)

That is an example of her making her own choices without the need of being the "love interest".

You know what, a pattern I notice with anti BKDKs with Ochaco is that she can't seem to exist unless she's Izuku's girlfriend. Look, you can dislike BKDK, personally I don't give a damn. But why at the expense of Ochaco?

What? She can just be friends with Izuku at the end? What if she turns out to be lesbian? Or ace?

"But what about the scenes where she blushes and --"

Obviously, you're living under a rock. Some people do have that period of time where they think they're attracted to the opposite sex or even have attraction at all before they realize "Hey, maybe I'm lesbian. Maybe I'm ace. Maybe..." and so on.

When Mina shouted "it's love", that was just planting an idea of what Ochaco was feeling. Did it mean it's romantic love? No!

Also, Iida was also mentioned and I'm sick of ya'll turning a blind eye to that.

SHE HANGS OUT WITH IIDA, TOO. As big as Iida is, some of you be acting like he's invisible.

She has a meaningful relationship with him, too. Oh, but I guess he's not the main character and a "stick in the mud" (WHICH IS FALSE!!) then he's not important.

Alright, okay.

Oh! I have something else! And it pertains to Katsuki!

It is very clear that him and Izuku are connected, their relationship is the most developed in the series. However!

Just like with Ochaco, Katsuki is still his own character. He has his own moments that do not involve Izuku.

He is his own character.

With that said, regardless of how My Hero Academia ends, I DO NOT WANT TO SEE ANYONE UPSET ABOUT BKDK NOT BEING CANON AND CALLING QUEERBAIT OR SENDING DEATH THREATS TO HORIKOSHI OR ANY OF THAT BULLSHIT!!

I do not need to see a repeat of SK8.

Again, this is a story about a kid becoming a hero. NOT SOME ROMANCE!!

At the end of the day, within the story, romance does not fucking matter when SOCIETY IS IN SHAMBLES BECAUSE SOME GUY IS CLAIMING HIMSELF TO BE ALL POWERFUL, THE DEMON KING, WHATEVER IT IS!!

These characters are trying to SURVIVE. THERE ARE KIDS FIGHTING IN A WAR!!

And some of you are worried about them not kissing?!

In my opinion, the best thing Horikoshi could do is leave ambiguous endings to ships. Like no ship becomes canon.

BECAUSE YA'LL ARE INSANE!!!

I have my ships, too, but damn. I rather see the big bad get defeated and the kids get the break they need and graduate!!!

Also, just because two characters don't kiss, doesn't mean the ship isn't canon. A romantic relationship doesn't have have be about kissing and sex, jeez.

Really, actions can be platonic or romantic. It just depends on how those who initiate those actions feel.

I really need some of you to OPEN YOUR MINDS. READ SOME FANFICTION IF YOU WANT SOME ROMANCE!!!

Calling Horikoshi or any other mangaka and creator "messy" for not giving you ship content when it's not even the initial intention especially if their story isn't even a romance is some entitled ass bullshit.

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shinidamachu · 4 years ago

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It's happened. I saw a post that pretty much said 'just because the artist claimed it so doesn't make it canon.' It's so bizarre, like fans can easily say "I follow anime canon" or "manga canon" like Japanese fans do (anime or manga-official, as they say over there) or even say "I headcanon that etc" but now it's straight up rejecting the creator's words as "not canon". How bizarre.

I take it you’re talking about Takahashi’s interview and the absolute cringe fest that followed?

Well, let’s say she had stated that Sesshomaru and Rin were always intended to be a potential couple instead. Would you accept as canon? Because let me tell you: I sure as hell wouldn’t. And here’s why: death of the author, babey!

An author's intentions should hold no special weight in determining an interpretation of their writing. A writer's views about their own work are no more or less valid than the interpretations of any given reader. Intentions are one thing. What was actually accomplished might be something very different. And we don’t get to cherry pick, this goes for both sides.

Takahashi told us a story. We know what we read and watched. We based our interpretation on what we thought it was pretty obvious that was given to us: a platonic relationship in which Sesshomaru was a guardian or father figure to Rin. It just turned out this was the author’s intent as well. Shippers, for a series of reasons that I won’t address here, had a complete different interpretation. An interpretation I strongly disagree with. An interpretation that was not the author’s intent.

But honestly? This is a “them” problem. I couldn’t care less what other people ship, as much as their ship still grosses me out. I’m a big girl. I’m not afraid of unfollowing people or blocking content I don’t want to see. My fandom experience it’s my responsibility. My real beef was with Sunrise for allowing Sesshomaru/Rin to happen in a kid’s show and in one of the nastiest ways possible. But this ship has sailed (ha!), the damage is already done.

And frankly, Takahashi is also to blame for this thing to blow out of proportion. She could have been (even) more emphatic about it on her work. She could have been more firm on painels or interviews instead of shrugging and saying “you do you” because she knew the implications and she knew what it meant for Sesshomaru and for the story she created. “You do you” is for Sesskag, Sesskik, Sesskog or whatever else. Not for Sessrin. She could have shot it down. She had years to do so. Now we’re dealing with the consequences.

The truth of the matter is: this ship is problematic to say the least. And that’s why its supporters are so desperate for Takahashi and Sunrise to say they’re right. In the end of the day, I feel like everyone got what they deserved: shippers with Sunrise’s validation, the rest of us with the author’s. And everyone is free to do with it whatever they want.

Personally, Takahashi finally speaking changes nothing for me, because canon wise, Yashahime changed nothing for me, either. I’m just glad for the people who needed her to say something to separate the original Channel series they love from the Walmart take-off that tried to ruin it. Unfortunately, it came off as damage control and to the casual viewers it’s too little too late to separate Inuyasha from Yashahime. Not that Sunrise cares, as long as the merch money keeps coming.

Anyway... Good thing shippers seem to have moved on from “denial” to “anger” to “bargain.”

Only two more stages of grief to go.

#Thank you for coming by anon #I don't know if you agree with me but this is where I stand #Also... have you guys noticed this place is enjoyable again now that the witch (Yashahime) is gone?#Is this wishful thinking?#Or are we finally moving on?#Because I'm super excited to pretend it never happened #At least for now #Anti Sessrin #Anti Sunrise #Anti Yashahime

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eevee-nova · 3 years ago

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Saiouma or Saimota? Whatever one you prefer

This is just a lot of fun answering these things so imma do both if that's cool with you! 😊

• Saimota:

I'm gonna say Ship It

1. What made you ship it?

I can't say I really did in the beginning. Shuichi is prob my fave protag and Kaito is obvs my fave character, but I didn't pair them up, cuz there wasn't that much hint dropping in canon, and their dynamic was cute bro like but didn't jump out. I ended up seeing a lot of fan content and its really a cute and wholesome ship. I like it more than Kaimaki mainly cuz of Shuichi's ability (even if it is only in his head) to call Kaito out on his shit which is a very important thing for a Kaito ship.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

It's cute, they definitely care about each other and want to see each other grow in their confidence in themselves. I think the friendship foundation is already there which makes it super wholesome, and I feel like there's just a lot of support going around. Also height difference and top tier bromance is just adorable!

3. Unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

It needs a lot of work communication wise in order to work in a canon sense. Idk if that's "popular" or not. But I think, like with Kaimaki, Kaito needs to bring his walls down, as well as deal with his jealousy issues, and stop with the hero persona, and Shuichi needs to get Kaito off that pedestal he puts him on. And I think it's realistic to say it could happen and be very lovely.

Saiouma:

Don't ship it

Oof is this controversial? Maybe but probably not. Lets just dive right in!

1. Why don't you ship it?

People can take what they want from a specific piece of media and shape it how they want and explore certain aspects of it in whatever ways they want and that's one of the best parts of fandom. People can ship any two (or more) characters simply because they want to and that's super cool. It doesn't have to be canon, it doesn't have to have any textual evidence, the characters don't even have to interact in canon because it's the creativity of content creators that make that stuff so good or compelling or interesting.

That being said tho, I'm the type of person that in order to ship something, I need some sort of canonical display between the two characters that can be seen as some sort of potential between them. I don't see it with them. I played thru v3 once myself and then a few months later watched a play thru. I knew going in that this was the most popular ship in the fandom and I was readying myself to see the ship baiting and chemistry between these two and it just... never happened? And then on the second time I tried to put a ship lens on and I still just didn't see it. It felt odd to me because of how often Shuichi brushes off Kokichi and how Kokichi's interest in Shuichi seemed to have more to do with his talent then who he is as a person. They're both great characters and platonically I'd love to see a developed friendship with them, but overall it just didn't click with me.

2. What would have made you ship it?

I'm not sure considering a lot of what would make me ship it would throw one or both of them wildly out of character. For Kokichi, I feel like he needs someone to match his energy and passion, and someone who will entertain his bullshit while understanding the deeper meaning behind it. While Shuichi is capable of seeing the deeper meaning, I feel like he wouldn't really tolerate the antics and chaotic behavior. Shuichi needs someone stable, who can support him, and won't expect more than he's capable of. Which I can't see Kokichi being able to level up to that. It's hard for me to say, honestly. I really like both their characters and I wouldn't want any part of them changed to fit a specific dynamic.

3. Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

The whole detective/outlaw thing is a fun concept, and aesthetically they look nice together. Protag/antag ships can be interesting if done right and the whole truth vs. lies thing is cool.

Thanks for the ask, this one got me thinking a lot!

Send me a ship and I'll tell you if I ship it or not! 😊💜

#this got long #but thats to be expected when i get in analysis mode™ lol #kaito momota #kokichi ouma #danganronpa #shuichi saihara #saimota #not gonna tag the other ship cuz i dont wanna put potential negativity in a space meant for positivity #asky thingys

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zukoshotleafjuice · 4 years ago

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The funniest thing about june teasing katara and zuko about being a couple is that she just sees a pretty girl and an attractive guy, both looking almost the same age which immediately makes her go "you two must be a couple" and it just reminds me of zvtara shippers, you know what i mean? I'm convinced one of the reasons a lot of ppl ship them is bc of their looks. katara being the female protagonist and also a pretty, smart and powerful girl & zuko, despite not being the male protagonist, being the most attractive guy in the gaang. Boom, a "bomb ass ship". It is worth to recall that "people ship zutara bc they projected onto katara and had a crush on zuko". And if they say they don't ship them for that reason, then it's bc they read too much between the lines in every interaction they have. So, back to june, she didn't even care if they had chemistry or if they were friends or anything, she just straight up teased them about being a couple lmao. Because in all honesty zvtara can be an appealing ship in anyone's eyes but THAT'S IT, it doesn't go further than that. I can be testimony of that😅Before even watching the show i was like june, one day i saw a zk fanart and was like "wow aren't those zuko and katara from atla? They look so good, she's gorgeous and he's hot" i already knew kataang was endgame and that mai was zuko's love interest but seeing zuko and katara together was pleasing to my eyes. However once i watched the show for the first time (2 months ago i think) i realized there was really no romantic chemistry between them, nothing, literally nothing, i mean, i wasn't even waiting for the zvtara content in the show that made ppl ship them so much, i was actually very neutral about ships, i couldn't care less about them, but i still realized nothing was happenig between them and that it was obvious since book 1 ep 1 that kataang was endgame. Zuko and katara were two teenagers from opposite sides of a war that tried to kill each other multiple times and when zuko changed sides they developed a completely platonic relationship. As i said, people either ship them because it's an appealing and aesthetically pleasing ship (water/fire, enemies to lovers, opposites attract, the common red & blue ship) or they just love reading too much between the lines, OR BOTH, because they were so thirsty about it they ended up convincing themselves there was romantic tension between them, that they liked each other and that zvtara was scrapped when it was never planned in the first place. Not to mention the reasons why they claim zvtara should've been endgame are based only on symbolism and things they have in common that are just so ??? Random. e.g. (i saw these on a post on facebook and the comment section was hilarious, it was full of ppl being sarcastic about it & making fun of it) saying they should've been canon bc:

1. "They both lost their mothers at a young age" (?)

2. "katara was good but had rage in her heart and zuko was bad but had good in his heart so it was like yin and yang, and that was the main purpose/topic of the show" (?)

3. "they both had alter egos (painted lady and blue spirit)" (???) this one sounds like saying maiko was canon bc zuko worked in a tea shop and mai worked in a flower shop😂

4. "Zuko was the only one who supported katara in taking revenge on her mom's assassin" (?) if you ask me, that just proves zuko is not right for katara, he led her to do something she was gonna regret later (not trying to hate on zuko, i love him, and since i love him i acknowledge his flaws. I understand why he thought it was the best thing to do, he's an impulsive and resentful boy (he would've done the same if it was his mom) and he noticed how thirsty katara was for revenge, ofc he wanted to help her + he wanted her to accept him and thought it was the right thing to do in order to gain her trust, but it wasn't) unlike zuko, aang tried to make katara come to her senses and do the thing that was best for her: forgive and let go, and it was basically what she did at the end. She didn't do what zuko expected her to do. She did what aang expected her to do. She didn't forgive her mom's assassin, but she forgave zuko, and she didn't do THAT thing she (and aang) knew would regret later. Aang knew katara and what was the best thing for her to do.

5. and the most ridiculous one, "they both saved each other's lives in the final agni kai"(???????) and the funniest part is that it was followed by "WHAT MORE PROOFS DO YOU WANT???". Honestly wtf did ppl expect? Did they expect zuko to stand there and watch katara die? Did they expect katara to just stand there and watch zuko lay on the floor & die? And this has been said a million times and i am going to join and say it once again: zuko would've done that for ANYONE from the gaang, he would've done the same for toph, sokka, suki and aang. Because he learned to care about them. As for katara, she would've done that for anyone too wtf she healed aang once too and even brought him back to life. (I wouldn't be surprised if zk shippers used that as a parallel for romantic zvtara proof bc they're just like that💀)

There were more "reasons" but they're just so stupid and taken out of context like "they care for each other" & "katara was the one who encouraged him to talk to his uncle" like yeah that's what friends do. Basically all zvtara shippers do is REACH.

Also, i just can't see it happening. I like the enemies to lovers trope, maybe if the writers really intended to make it canon, i would have been down for the ship, it would've been interesting to see how it developed, but,, they didn't, and later i came to the realization that if it would've really happened, it would've been so... weird. Time to bring up the "colonized and colonizer ship" and how some ppl feel uncomfortable about it. Besides the fact that a relationship between zuko and katara wouldn't have worked (they're incompatible af, katara is a girl with a strong character and zuko is a guy with anger issues that takes everything personal, they'd be at each other's throats 99% of the time) it's just weird to think that katara would choose to marry a man from the fire nation, the nation that caused a big war that traumatized her, the nation that took her mother away from her. Imagine katara ruling along with zuko a nation she despised for years. Fire lady katara doesn't sit right with me, and i'm sure it doesn't sit right with a lot of ppl as well. I don't see katara doing that, and yes, i know she forgave zuko, but still, she would've never done that 🤦🏽‍♀️ i think it would've been so OOC tbh.

Another thing i laugh my ass off at is when they say "zuko should've chosen katara instead of mai" as if they were ever in a relationship for zuko to say "ok imma choose katara i wanna be with her". As if katara was EVER an option for him. They never showed interest in each other, what's not clicking?????? And zuko only had eyes for mai, not to mention that despite zuko and mai had a rough relationship, no girl would've dealed with zuko's bs better than mai. Can you imagine katara dealing with zuko blowing up over everything? Because i can't. Also people saying things like "zuko deserves someone who is always there for him and listens to him" (and ofc they're talking about katara) like, ok, you hate that katara is aang's "therapist" but you want her to be zuko's therapist. Logic? Where? And I do remember mai being a supportive gf and trying to cheer him up multiple times. Did they watch the same show as me?

Zvtarians try to play the victims about how they were "robbed" bc some voice actors shipped them and from what i've read people who worked for the show suggested to go for zk, but that's stupid, it doesn't count as "they planned it but scrapped it, we were robbed". The only word that counts are the creators' voice and they have stated they were always rooting for kataang, so no, you were not robbed.

People are just so in love with the idea of zuko and katara together they really convinced themselves it was likely to happen. Honestly zvtara it's a fine ship as fanon but ppl ruined it for me and what i hate the most is when they ship it and hate on aang and mai at the same time and make them look SO bad to invalidate kataang and maiko. Saying aang is abusive and mai is toxic is complete ✨bullshit✨ and lastly, it's ridiculous when they say the creators were cowards for not making it canon. They're cowards for not fulfilling your greatest childhood wish? Something they never planned? It is THEIR show. If you hate sm how things turned out then quit atla once and for all and go find another show that you know is gonna give you what you expect,,, it's tiring that they've been crying about it for 15 yrs , like, i joined the fandom recently but i can imagine how tired old atla fans must be of this.

OK so I have a lot of thoughts about this and firstly,,,anon I appreciate the dedication that it took for you to write this, and I agree with many of your points. However, the attitude I have on this blog towards Avatar ships is far more neutral than what you’re saying.

Ultimately, romance is not and never was the focus of Avatar. Romantic development was always secondary or tertiary plot, and the entire show was far more focused on platonic relationship development. My attitude towards shippers on here - including Zutara shippers - is that people can ship what they want, as long as they’re respectful of each other and of the other characters that “interfere” with their ship. End of the day, shipping is irrelevant to the core of the show.

People shipping something because they find it aesthetically appealing is honestly,,,fine. Personally, I think it’s reductionist, but I don’t care if you do because everyone has the right to enjoy media however they want to.

That being said, we absolutely should call out racist or problematic tropes that we see, including ‘fire lady katara”. I also agree that it’s upsetting when people bash other characters in order to further their ship, as much of the bashing is also pretty racist and/or misogynistic. Calling that out, however, is separate from calling out every single person who happens to enjoy certain ships.

“She didn't do what zuko expected her to do. She did what aang expected her to do. She didn't forgive her mom's assassin, but she forgave zuko, and she didn't do THAT thing she (and aang) knew would regret later. Aang knew katara and what was the best thing for her to do.”

I understand where you’re coming from, but I honestly disagree with this take. Both Aang and Zuko were approaching the situations from their own life experiences, but Katara didn’t do what either of the boys wanted. She chose her own path, by both sparing Yon Rha’s life but also refusing to forgive him. The episode is about Katara and her personal trauma and its focus should not be on her relationships with either Zuko or Aang.

When I make posts such as this, it’s less about hating Z*tara and more about how this fandom focuses all its attention on romance and shipping, to the point where if you acknowledge a relationship’s importance it’s assumed you pair the two romantically. I don’t read Zuko and Katara’s relationship as romantic (for reasons that it would take too long to explain here), but their relationship development is extremely important, the two of them share tons of parallels and the final Agni Kai marks the culmination of both of their character arcs. Yes, Zuko would have taken the lightning for any of the characters, but it’s thematically important that it was Katara. None of this inherently means it’s romantic, but refusing to acknowledge the significance of the relationship between them is equally reductionist.

This isn’t an attack on you, anon, and you’re 100% allowed to have negative feelings about a ship. But at the end of the day, it’s not worth getting this worked up over. If I were you I’d focus more on creating/consuming content for a ship you like than bashing ships you don’t!

#kind of nervous about posting this but oh well #atla #avatar the last airbender #shipping #zuko #katara #aang #asks

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