#the fact this show isn't more popular baffles me

[queer-cackling]

kj brandman is the lesbian ever. she plays field hockey, she punched the girl she liked, she asked her future girlfriend how she knew she liked 'movies', when she was twelve she had a thing for the local tomboy who hates her. she is the realest person alive.

[sapphic-agent]

Hopefully, this ask won’t get you in trouble. If you feel it does, then feel free to disregard this. Or if you don’t feel comfortable or confident talking about it, cause it does involve talking about ships.

But it somewhat feels like Horikoshi for the later chapters seems to be catering for same sex pairings, like Midoriya always being around Bakugou, or Ochako’s most significant moments now being around Toga. At least to me.

And the fact he seems to be focusing on same sex pairings certainly isn’t the problem.

The problem is the fact is the pairings he’s focusing on are f****** shit!

BakuDeku is an angry asshole bossing around and being a d*****bag to a boy that has been conditioned to think so highly of his abuser. This is a hop, skip and a jump away from Stockholm Syndrome.

Togachako, imo, is slightly worse than BakuDeku (but not by much) simply because it’s a very one sided relationship where one partner always has to cater to the problems of the other with no sign of returned love or reciprocated love. I wouldn’t trust Toga to know when she’s had enough of my blood. Why should I believe she would know where to stop drinking Ochako’s blood? And despite the images throughout their fight, like Toga GROPING Ochako, Horikoshi, for some disturbing reason, tries SO hard to paint this as a CUTE couple. (Hell, the dude could be showing Toga literally EATING Ochako and somehow paint it as an endearing thing…)

Why is Horikoshi banking on these toxic forms of love for the LGBTQ when he’s had more HEALTHIER couples?!?

TodoDeku? Tsuchako? IidaDeku? Minachako?

Hell, there are other pairings that were literally already there!

MomoJirou!

Mirio and Amajiki!

It’s just…it’s baffling why BakuDeku and Togachako are paraded as these fantastic M/M and W/W ships when they are anything BUT.

I have a sapphic couple in their wedding dresses as my pfp and my user is sapphic-agent... I'd honestly be impressed if someone could accuse me of homophobia😆Feel free to submit any LGBTQIA asks :)

In the case of TogaChako, I just think Toga herself is queer-bait. Among BakuDeku and other queer ships becoming popular, good old Hori probably thought to himself, "What's the best way to capitalize on this?" without actually putting any thought or care into it (like with Bakugou's redemption once he started to become popular). So he made Toga canonically bisexual (I'm like 90% sure she wasn't originally intended to be bi as she was way more infatuated with Izuku than Uraraka initially). And she's bad rep to boot. Horikoshi is making his only canonically queer character a predator... that's not a good look.

I even like Toga. Or, I liked how much potential she had at the beginning of the series. She was original and I liked her quirk. He could have given her a lot of depth, but nah let's just make her creepy and a predator mfers will eat it right up... And he was right unfortunately.

What makes it worse is that Uraraka has to be at the center of Toga's advances (again, WHY THE GROPING PANEL). Idk if it's because she's the main girl or what, but she deserved better than this.

(Tbh, I know she's Izuku's LI, but her and Tsu are way cuter and a lot healthier than her and Toga)

BakuDeku I feel like is part of that queer-baiting. Look, the fact is that it will never be canon. We know it, the shippers know it (even if they feign delusion), and Horikoshi knows it. But that doesn't mean Hori isn't milking it for all its worth. Do you see how the shippers go nuts when Izuku and Bakugou are in the same panel together? The entire MHA feed will be filled with it here on Tumblr for weeks. They eat that shit up and Horikoshi knows that. That's part of the reason why he forced reconciliation between them, so that he'd have more content for them to froth at the mouth over.

[exoticalmonde]

LUNDInium Outskirts /Part VIII/

Starting off strong today with Dr. Kryo's growing potential in digital art. This is all of us on a dinner date, so left from the depressed looking Mlynar we have Dr. Lundi, Hoederer, Dr. Eve, Surtr, Dr. Kryo.

Per usual, Mlynar is considering the loss of Lundi's gargantuan ice cream. I'm never shutting up, and Surtr is probably baffled at how much food this bottomless pit called a Draco can fit.

Based on this:

---

Even though this isn't a doodle per se, it's incredibly funny for us since Dr. Kryo is very popular for the snack drawer, Dr. Lundi has a chips drawer, Dr. Pinkie owns the fish buffet and I, your host, Dr. Eve have everything your Slavic grandmother has in that one snack cupboard in the living room/kitchen.

Here, have at theе,

WAIT, I have not shown you all the rooms that all of our Doctors decided to put together, have I???

Let's take you on a little tour, my darling readers.

We can start off with Dr. Kryo's Office

Dr. Kryo, you're still here? Hard-working I see. Do you have anything to add about your choice of decor? I'm going to go to Lundi's ship after this.

Dr. Kryo: "My office? Well first off the interior design is Siracusa based cuz ya know, love the style they got goin' on there. Starting from my desk I suppose, nothin' too crazy about, just any old office desk, same with the chair. That cabinet and notice board I had from how this place previously looked at one point and thought them too handy to get rid of so I decided to keep 'em there."

"That sign with the mountains was a gift and I didn't really have anywhere to put it so here it lies in my office. The armchair, couch and side table were recommendations for the interior design and I rocked with it so here it is. So was the coffee table in the middle. That skull ornament was also a gift to me and hell, it looked really cool so I needed to have it in here."

"Now that fridge and cabinet? Those are possibly the most important things in this room. Those are the refreshments that keep me and some of my operators going when needed. Those 2 will never leave this room. Especially the fridge or else a certain redhead will get mad at me."

And the Bedroom with all the comforts one can desire, I see.

Dr. Kryo: "My room...

Now, in here is actually rather simple compared to my office. To be honest, the most grandiose thing about this room is the view you get, but other than that it's your sorta standard room. Normal bed, couch, nightstand, coffee table, TV. I forgot where I got that cabinet from but it's there. Those 2 baskets have snacks in them. Judging how I sang the fridge and cabinet's praises in my office, you know the importance of these."

---

Now, we're going to Dr. Lundi's Office.

Don't uh-- Don't be intimidated by the operators you see in there, okay? I know they're all sad, frowning middle-aged men, but it's okay, hold my hand. They're pretty nice fellows. And Sesa.

Oh, Dr. Lundi, I was just showing people your Office. Would you like to tell us a little bit more about it?

Dr. Lundi: "We pretend that's Mlynars messenger bag for when he goes out wandering obscurely. Shelf of Dr Lundi's favourite music albums. She cares for them deeply. The fridge is full of energy drinks and Mountain Dew. There is a corner dedicated to building guns. Sesa is usually found here. Dr. Lundi does NOT care if what he is doing is technically illegal. In fact, she encourages it, as a Sankta." (He likes to build guns and is canonically trying to make them shoot more than once, which is currently not possible for non-Sanktas to do with patron firearms. It is elaborated in his module if you're curious.) "Gun collection. to the left. Dr Lundi has 1 main rifle and a back-up rifle. (AX50 main, VSS Vintorez backup, if you want names.) Box of ammunition under her office table as well as on every single available shelf. Haphazardly tapes papers onto the wall cause she always puts off getting a proper corkboard for the wall. Files scattered everywhere. Some are probably important. Mlynar has stopped trying to fix this behaviour. Little ottoman with a blanket for long nights. Posters for decor rather than pictures. I know the guitar is… a guitar... But please pretend it's a bass, picked up in Siesta at some point. It was a great pain to bring home safely. Plants that require the BARE minimum of care. She asked Flamebringer for assistance when choosing."

What about your bedroom?

Dr. Lundi: "Bedroom???????????"

Dr. Lundi: "Bar. Cause that's what she does. Mlynar hates it as a non-drinker. She makes alcohol-free stuff for him, of course. Posters, banners and plaques. Reminds her of Laterano."

"Her bed is a bunk, because of space distribution. She sleeps on the top bunk so Mlynar can use the laptop placed on it whenever he has to work." (There is a laptop on this bunkbed, I promise.)

"Every morning (or rather, when she wakes up, which could be at any time), she plays the shooty arcade game, which Executor obviously helped install, as the walking supercomputer and tech-wiz.

Ah, how refreshing to be in the company of such different people. I love looking at places where people live because you get to see how they live. You can see the Siracusa-inspired vibe and the Laterano-born desire to always have Emperor somewhere.

---

We haven't spoken about this yet, but Dr. Pinkie's RI 00 is, after all, the first to ever be built. Naturally, they'd have all the necessary parts to make the most of it, so I think just showing all of it in one post won't be enough.

For now, I'll feature all of our pride and joy - the bunny room.

---

Last, but not least, we have my room...

I'll be honest I don't know if it's as cool as other people's but I really like it as my own. A quiet little corner do to paperwork in and probably nap for 4 hours every day.

I got the bookshelves installed in the wall to make space for everything else and then filled it with all my Yan slash and Ursus historical romance novels. Kal'tsit doesn't approve, I'll tell you that. When we went shopping for curtains Hoederer said these looked familiar, so we went along with his instinct. The sunsets are always so beautiful to watch from here.

I love this chair because Operator Lumen recommended it. He's always on my back for having a weird posture and I sit for way too long, so this was bought with me (him) in mind. The couch and coffee table are free to use. Many of the children come crash at the office after school, so I keep some blankets around for them.

Istina, Robin, Absinthe, and even Odda started showing up recently. I know many of them aren't kids in the literal sense, but at some point, we all start missing sleeping after lunch.

The wall decoration? Some Operators have a condition caused by Originium that has us shed our horns every couple of years. It's been only with Elafia. Those there are my first shed after I woke up. I'm sorry if it's a little strange.

Nothing else to be noted... I like keeping some fresh lilies in the office, they kind of started happening after Hortus De Escapismo and I guess everybody went along with it. Courrier comes once in a while with letters from people and at one point it became such a mess! We had a Kjerag letter holder imported and installed.

My bedroom has a lot going on.

We sleep together with Hoederer here but he isn't at all surprised to see that there's a mix of Yan/Higashi and Laterano in here. I like the light and the view is spectacular early in the morning. I'm somehow very lucky to always have the sunrise in my bedroom and dusk in my office. Whether I get to see them is a different story, of course.

We also often work here too, Hoederer shows all sorts of historical texts and I bother him with the things I'm writing in exchange. I've got a book nook and our bed was a small expensive indulgence of mine.

I'm made fun of a lot for it.

After Ebenholz and Lessing came back from Leithanien together, he asked me to keep Kreide's cello safe, so I do. I can't play it, but we make sure there's never a speck of dust on that case.

Chongyue has expressed concern about how many mementoes of people I keep, but instead of thinking of my own bedroom as a graveyard of my affection, I like to see it as budding hope. These purple flowers, the cello, and the Sami books, all survived. Somebody might want them in the future, I have no problem of parting with them if it's for the aid of others.

---

IN BETTER NEWS, WE'RE BACK WITH THE DOODLES

We always have all sorts of inspiration shooting left and right, it's up to the mood whether they come to fruition. Like how this did...

---

I actually just randomly prompted this, because I wanted Boothill and Mlynar to interact. You know, the horse and the cowboy...

I saw it in a vision.

---

---

BEST OF ALL TODAY!!!

We are all getting chibis!!!

You'd finally get to see what the Doctors look like in HD. Words I will immediately follow with this picture of the concept.

I think it's very important to see the development in it since we all sat there for HOURS watching Lundi's stream as she turned a white space into the personification of what we all have always wanted to be:

An actual team.

Sometimes, just sometimes, I look up and see miracles happening on screen too.

As a refresher (or for anybody who just doesn't know) so far this team of rats consists of an Aegir - Pinkie; A Sankta - Lundi; A Draco - Kryo; and a Chimera (Pantheon) - Eve.

So very soon after, it was all coming so well together. We couldn't possibly wait to have it finished.

We immediately had to make memes.

Which you will see in the next post because we somehow already reached the 30-image limit on the website. STAY TUNED! <3

[periwinklecosma]

(tw for r*cism, p*dophilia, tr*nsphobia, and SA)

truly i am not saying this simply for the sake of being mean or a snob but i wish mp100 fans would think more about the type of people they choose to make popular in our community. as a fic reader and writer i've seen all kinds of shit that people come up with and i'm not picky with what i enjoy but you know what i find to be completely baffling? the fact that only a handful of people seem to be willing to be critical of an author who (and i'm not putting this under a read more because you guys need to see how fucking long this is and let it sink in):

wrote touichirou to be even worse than he already is in canon. we're talking about being pro-eugenics, being racist towards serizawa (who is portrayed as blasian), and condoning child impregnation (don't even try to come at me with the whole "well duh he's the villain so what's the problem?!" because let me ask you: why would any of the above be necessary to show that touichirou is a villain? all of this is ultimately unimportant to the fic in question as a whole and imo they're not handled with the necessary care that should entail. something being dark and gritty =/= being better; i thought we've evolved past this mindset). excuse me for disregarding mp100's themes of "it's never too late to change" for a second here, but shit like this makes it extra difficult to buy into his character development post-wd arc. most recently, the author has revealed herself to hc him as having had a white south african mother from whom he learned "his kind of eugenics mindset. outright headcanoning a character to be racist huh? white.

is racist towards serizawa in general actually. the narration is constantly making weird comments about his hair before he starts working at s&s. you see people like REIGEN saying he looks sloppy, and it's never called out.

wrote a graphic sequence where reigen gives birth in a taxi while ritsu watches and helps deliver it. again, it's a completely unnecessary scene and adds nothing to the overall narrative, and it can be very uncomfortable for those faint of heart. also theres a gratuitous r/trei joke thrown in there for good measure.

has very questionable trans rep, according to the trans people i've spoken to. serizawa is implied to have a trans fetish, shimazaki is portrayed as a trans woman chaser (you know for the funnies), and allusions to reigen's transness are mostly through explicit imagery.

is really weird about the kids????? shou is characterized as someone who's constantly making dirty and frankly unsettling comments towards others even when he isn't being aged up, even though that's not a trait he has in canon. he and the others are constantly dancing right up to this really uncomfortable line that stops just short of full-blown gross shit.

WROTE A FIC WHERE REIGEN ASSAULTS SERIZAWA. do you hear me? she wrote a fucking fic where serizawa wakes up to reigen trying to get it on with him. that is assault. this author will tell you that it isn't assault because they're in an established relationship but listen to me: That. Is. Assault.

doesn't tag any of the shit i just mentioned! she doesn't alert her audience to any of these things before she draws in her audience because she's more worried about "spoilers" than actually protecting people. one time someone asked her to tag the fic i mentioned in the bullet point directly above as SA due to being triggered but she refused because they were the only person to have a problem with it (allegedly), and also because they were "rude." wtf. basic fucking decency shouldn't hinge on how polite or rude someone is being, but she has such a huge victim complex despite being 39 years old and too old for this shit that she doesn't even realize it.

again i am not trying to put myself on a soapbox and say that i'm inherently better than anyone but i really am so disappointed in you people. for the most part i find that this fandom is a lot more well put together than a lot of those hellholes out there (save for the standard fuckery that all fandoms are guilty of obviously) but seeing talented artists that i otherwise respect and have nothing against choose to put this person on a pedestal and by extension enable this sort of thing to continue is so disheartening. i'm not trying to attack anyone or accuse them of consciously condoning this content, but please think for a bit before you uncritically recommend it to others just because it has your favorite ship in it or because you enjoy darker and more mature themes.

[peachjagiya]

Not be that person but bh leaves no stone unturned with JM's promo. Such a strategic placement of tokboeki and travel show (funny it's the same member always). Like why now ? Weren't fans demanding no limelight should be taken from the members. They could have launched this while RMs album came out if travel show has no correlation with album promo. Or they could have launched it after jin's album. My point is if Tae's Type 1 can be released between JM's promo. This show could have been released at any point of time but they wanted Jungkook's popularity. I understand why jkks behave so badly because bh portrays it this way.

I know a lot of fans are expecting Tae to have a cameo but I really wish he doesn't. Army's will get more reasons to drag him.

I saw a lot of "oh so it's ok for this to distract from Jimin album promo then?" yesterday.

It's another one of those situations where fans create the issue themselves then take it as gospel.

It's not wrong that Type 1 was announced during Muse. It just isn't. Marketing-wise, it draws attention to BTS as a whole. The only people with a problem are people who are insecure enough to believe a photobook could prevent Jimin charting, an absolutely baffling mindset. I can't stream a photobook on Spotify?

But unrealistic illogical pjm arguments steeped in Tae anti-ness (or vice versa!) have adjusted the goalposts. So now because they had a problem with Type 1, we're reacting to Are You Sure? as if it's factual that it's problematic to cross promotion schedules.

It's not! Some toxic people made it an issue! Doesn't mean it's a fact. Why are we entertaining their ludicrous notions by leaning into it? Where was this energy when Minimoni reviewed RPWP? Where was this hatred when Yoongi set up a show specifically to use his platform to promote his members?

It's not wrong for Joon to have Jimin in a video to promote RPWP.

It's not wrong for Type 1 to come out during Muse promo.

It's not wrong for Friends to come out during Hope on the Street promo.

It's not wrong for a lot of Golden and Layover promo to have overlapped.

It's not wrong for Jimin's travel show with JK to come out during Muse promo. It literally features Jimin?! What better time to release it?

It's just point-scoring and I'd prefer to judge this stuff on how I actually feel about it rather than how fandom war tells me I should.

💜

[chocolatepot]

are we finally having a fight with the black sails fandom? has this to do with the pirate battle poll blog, do ppl actually get upset over this? sorry for springing this on you I'm not up to date on the discourse - I just remember very early on a blog I followed back then losing their shit about ofmd being more popular than black sails was (in their opinion, I don't actually think this is true), I didn't know other black sails fans were still actually bittet about this? I never got into the show despite really wanting to; it had more sexual assault in the first few eps than I was willing to put up with at the time. and I didn't like the main character. but whatever just because it's not my cup of tea doesn't mean it's objectively bad.

it's just - idk I find it kinda confusing that ppl seem to insist there's only One True Gay Pirate Show I guess? what even is the problem here those 2 are completely different in tone.

Sorry for ranting in ur inbox uninvited I'm just really baffled. Why do people insist to argue about this isn't the pirate poll supposed to be in good fun?

(okay you are free to ignore this obviously. I just had to voice my confusion to someone XD)

Lmao, yes, it's about the pirate poll, of all things. I only know Black Sails people who are also either into or at least generally positive toward OFMD so I've been totally unaware of any undercurrents of rage/jealousy until just now.

I do remember people getting really upset about the "these characters are based on historical people who did bad things" issue when the show first aired, but I'd assumed that wasn't Black Sails fans because, well ... many of their characters are also based on historical people who did bad things? and many of their characters do really bad things onscreen and are still liked in the fandom? Maybe there's an element of insecurity over Black Sails having so much problematic content for non-fans to object to, so the angry fans are trying to prove that this other, thematically similar show with less obviously problematic content is in fact more problematic.

The ridiculous thing I keep coming back to is that the brouhaha started because Flint was up against Stede. He was winning! This was not a case of "how dare these other people with their blorbo come in and beat MY blorbo, who has more of a right to win" - it was "this other blorbo shouldn't even be allowed in competition with my blorbo, and he definitely shouldn't have anyone voting for him and talking about how they want him to win".

(Never apologize for asking me about a fandom wank, I'm always willing to expound.)

[lemonhemlock]

i have to say, you guys are relentless, i only need to post one helaemond-related ask and it inevitably brings all the boys to the yard :))

don't get me wrong, i enjoyed reading your takes & i'm posting them under the cut for anyone who wants to read such rants, but, at this point, with so little content, i feel like there's not really a lot more i can personally add to fandom critique that i haven't already said (discourse and metas anyone can find if they go through my designated tag).

so i hope you won't feel offended & this is 100% a helaemond blog but i am going to pause the shipping wars topic for the time being unless something fresh hits our port or we get some kind of news / additional content (maybe like scripts? would love to see those!)

it's been more than a year since the season ended and we've made all the arguments we could possibly make, but we can't control if there are users who still rehash the same three talking points over and over

Anonymous asked: The kids theory was always a long shot and to be fair, their paternity doesn't really matter for the ship to happen. Helaemond can still have romantic feelings to each other without the kids being his, but like you said, if the ship doesn't get confirmed as canon antis and Aemondwives will all be like "We told you so!!! You were all delusional and you should've stopped shipping it!!!!"...okay? It still doesn't change the fact the writers most likely played with the possibility. Setting up potential storylines and not picking them up in a later season is something that has always been happening in TV especially when the team behind the show changes in between seasons like it happened with hotd this time (maybe those who speculated that Sapochnik came up with the idea of Helaemond were right?). Idk how many chances the ships still has if the leaks about B&C being at the end of episode 1 or in episode 2 are real (I doubt there can be a romance after the event), but whatever happens people won't stop shipping it. Non-canon pairings have always been a thing in fandoms and sometimes they may even be more popular than canon ones. It's still baffling to me how hated this ship has become in the fandom though.

Anonymous asked: it feels very obvious because a lot of these fans won’t bring the same “it’s non-canon/made up/etc” vibe to something like Aegond or Daemond, but they will to Helaemond bc they fear it might actually happen in canon. Which, if it does, has nothing to do with the shippers and comes from the writers 😭

Anonymous asked: Some antis are now making up crap about Helaemond shippers hating on Ewan. One of them even made a list and they were listed as his top haters (they also included TB stans and L*cemond shippers but...Alicent and Aegon stans for some reasons as well lmao) while another one claimed Helaemonds are currently bashing Ewan by generally making fun of him and of his looks because of the ship not happening???? I don't know whose comments made them angry but I've yet to see one Helaemond bullying and actually hating on him. Not saying nasty H shippers don't exist but why claim all of them are doing something like this when it clearly isn't the case? At most I've seen people making fun of some of the things he says in interviews but this is not hate. People are allowed to joke.

lmao, people lightheartedly joshing around and pointing out some cringe statements is not hate, dictionaries exist!

Anonymous asked: The funniest thing about the crowing reaction all of the Ewan-obsessed twitter fans had to this supposed leak is when it comes to what canonical "confirmation" Helaemond shippers as a whole most often discussed it was a type of courtly love; probably unconsummated feelings between the two. The kids theory was a niche fun fanon theory mainly used for fics and headcanons, and most people who are still participating in this fandom had little to no "expectation" that we would see that on the show. Funny to point out that expectation isn't even the correct word to use here, as Helaemonds by and large were completely fine with no type of canonical confirmation, and were mainly excited for any Aemond and Helaena interactions we may get in the new season. It's a non-canon ship, people are drawn to all of the potentials they personally see in this dynamic, and how it can be explored in fan content. Shippers like this very rarely care about canonicity - not to say they wouldn't welcome it of course on the off chance it happened, but that is not a priority of their engagement in fandom.

[thebreakfastgenie]

This is a true fandom story and idk if it will make sense if you don't know the source material but it BAFFLES me but I Think also sheds a bit of light on the whole "fandom doesn't know what platonic means" thing.

I was discussing in a discord (a fandom discord, in fact, but for a media property than the one this story is about) a book that had recently been adapted to film. The central character of the book has a close male best friend whom he canonically routinely had sex with while intoxicated which they then do not acknowledge in the sober light of day. When they parted ways, thinking it was to be for the last time, one of them kisses the other goodbye, and the other has mixed feelings about this, wondering if this makes him "a queer" but also, a part of him wanting to say he loves him.

This person on the fandom discord was saying how the book was "a bit gay" but that the movie was "even gayer". What the movie did was strip most of that out. They impulsively kiss goodbye but there's absolutely none of this other context around it - certainly not the sex, but also none of the confusion, the mixed emotions, etc.

Suddenly in that moment I realised that this flattening of the idea of a storyline between two men being "a bit gay" kind of had the same root as attributing "gayness" to two men interacting casually/platonically. It isn't really about what is happening in the storyline for any of these men. It's about how easy it is to take screenshots and make gifsets that fit a preconceived idea. The actual content of the story could be different in either direction and for certain kinds of fan engagement that does not matter.

You explained this very well and I think you really got at something! I was just thinking about the abstract, vibes-based meaning of "gay" in fandom that may or may not have anything to do with two people of the same gender being in a sexual or romantic relationship. In my opinion, the recent popularity of "gay sex" as a phrase was a response to this, but it's undergoing the same abstraction process. The same thing shows up in "this too is yuri."

With m/m shipping in particular, it's often more about fitting stock gay narratives than interpretations that fit the story or anything to do with the specific characters. One of the best parts of Gonchrarov was watching the Goncharov/Andrey ship evolve around a set of very popular beats when the movie didn't even exist. You don't need the source material! Screenshots and gifsets tell the whole story!

I personally find this flattening in all its forms kind of devastating. It's the exact opposite of what I want out of gay content! I want all kinds of different, richly textured stories!

Also I'm obsessed with people declaring the adaptation where two men didn't have sex more gay. That's so incredibly online.

[thetiredstuff]

what did amell do? did I miss some drama?

hi anon! oooh you missed alllll the drama lol

yeah so rumors have been swirling around for yearssss that he's an asshole and that by the end of arr*w he and his fellow castmates did not get along. fun fact actually:

this VERY popular meme above is from a picture taken during i think s8 of arrow during oliver's funeral. it was posted by someone who worked on arrow i believe and it said how they loved working with these people. anyway it grew into a veryyyy popular meme and if i remember correctly and i think i do it eventually came out that smell absolutely hateddddddddd this meme cuz he found it disrespectful or something? I'm pretty sure he said something about it online? idk how else i would know about this but yeah lol that's funny. everyone found it especially funny cuz he's not in the pic and it was shared with the caption loved working with these people when all these people hated working with amell (or so the rumors have been going at least)

but as far as I know there isn't actually like definitive proof he was an asshole on set? (but I'm also not part of the arr*w universe fanbase so idk all that much about it) I do know that an actor who returned for s7 and s8 ultimately didn't show up as much and he later revealed he left the show again because he was depressed and couldn't stand working with one cast member (which many have speculated to be amell)

then amell also tried to shut down an animal rescue next to him for being too loud? which is just baffling to me honestly, especially cuz he apparently used to volunteer there?

then there is the story of him like drunkenly berating his wife on an airplane which he got removed for.

he once made a facebook post about allegedly miley cyrus where he said he was dining out with his wife and daughter when mc walked in and he was so repulsed because she is idk like moraly corrupt for young girls or something? that was the gist of it anyway? something like that idk

but as for recently: sag-aftra is striking (an actors union) which he is a part of. because of this strike, actors are not allowed to talk about any past, present or future projects and are also not allowed to promote any of their current projects on say social media.

however, 2 days after the strike was announced, amell broke those rules by talking about his projects at a con. although it was very confusing at the time what actors could and could not say so fans kept it on the down-low.

flash forward to now (2 weeks later) and he's got a show which is starting to air its second season and he posted a selfie of him in front of a giant billboard with the show's name on on Instagram. this directly violates the rules of the union that he is a part of and led many people to call him a "scab" someone who is crossing the picket line during a union, choosing to work or promote their work instead of striking or standing in solidarity with those who are striking. and more importantly: because amell is part of the union that is striking, this behavior directly violates the strike order and any behavior directly violating the strike order, can make the union throw you out.

anyway: after that amell thought that it would be a great idea to say: “I support my union, I do, and I stand with them, but I do not support striking, I don’t. I think it is a reductive negotiating tactic, and I find the entire thing incredibly frustrating. And I think the thinking as it pertains to shows like the show that I’m on, that premiered last night, I think it’s myopic.”

so right now he's as far as i know the only actor who has been so outspoken against the strike. and like the important thing to remember is that this strike is not for him (clearly) he was on arrow before it went to streaming, he has countless residuals from that show that while now available on streaming is also still available on cable as well so he probably still makes a decent penny from his appearances in the arrow verse. but the vast majority of well-known actors are striking for the actors that are not well-known. there are over 100.000 actors part of the sag-aftra union. the vast vast vasttttt majority of them do not earn enough money from acting alone. are not fairly compensated and studios are now wanting to abuse their image and voice through AI etc. the demands of sag-aftra have been published as well as the studios' response and it's disgusting that studios rejected these very very very reasonable demands. any actor who loves their job and who has even an ounce of empathy for others would support this strike because it is the right thing to do.

except amell which is why 2 arrowverse cast mates have told hinted in tweets that he sucks:

Aisha Tyler (from cirminal minds), someone who he has been hanging out with for years (probably more because they have the same group of friends) also posted something about, "when people you thought were assholes, turn out to be assholes" it could be about someone else but very interesting timing if it is.

and then lastly of course there is this screenshot of his threads profile where he shared a post from the fucking asshole inc*l, transphobe, terrible human that is jord*n peters*n

[helloquotemyfoot]

Book Backlog Busting Reading Challenge

Update two: electric boogaloo. I have finished five books since my last appearance! Yes some of them I read through so fast I didn't get the chance to mention them in the last post. This is how I get into trouble. So let's start with those ones first.

The Appeal by Janice Hallett. FINISHED. This was a fun and easy read in the epistolary style (the entire book is told through text messages, emails, and other documentation). Epistolary is always fun to read and the particular style of this book gave the feeling of snooping on the neighbours and getting all the hot goss without the guilt of intruding on other peoples' lives. As a mystery though, it was only "okay". The framing device is two junior lawyers doing unbiased analysis of the case for their boss in order to (he thinks) get an innocent person out of prison. But you aren't told who this party is until the last third of the book. The murder victim themselves isn't confirmed until halfway through the book. A crucial fact that you NEED to know in order to guess at the motive of the person who actually did it (which is very convoluted but anyway) is only revealed at the 1/3 mark and in order to use that fact to guess at the murder motive you would need to carefully re-read 250 pages, not JUST the specific emails you are actually directed to. This is not only unrealistic but is just not a good use of the format of a book like this. Worth reading, but I would borrow rather than buy for sure.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. FINISHED. I first read this book about a decade ago and really didn't enjoy it but decided to give it another chance after embarking on a Jane Austen re-read-athon last year. It's certainly better than I remembered, but you can tell it's one of Austen's earlier novels. The two actual relationships of the book are built up entirely by telling, not showing, leaving me much more on board with Elinor/Colonel Brandon than any other relationship in the novel. Apart from the absurdity of Mr and Mrs John Dashwood, I also really missed Austen's signature wit. I suspect the intention was for Marianne's dramas to be inherently satirical, but instead they were just annoying. Maybe some of her friends bothered her about how it should have been Elinor and Brandon who got together, because in Austen's other works she is very careful that the central couple be seen interacting. Genuinely still baffled at the construction of this book honestly.

And the other books I DID tell you about!

Lord of Chaos by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #6). FINISHED. You can see the size of the books and number of subplots is starting to get away from Jordan a bit here, as Nynaeve and Elayne end up having a plot line that entirely consists of "fuck around until we can go to Ebou Dar", but it's not to the point where the story was too bogged down by it. Jordan's idea of normal marital conflict is really annoying however and well worth prolonging the resolution of all the romantic arcs. I loved Perrin/Faile in previous books but not in this one, my god.

First Contact: the Cult of Progress by David Olusoga. FINISHED. Due to the size of the book I didn't realise how actually short it was, only about 300 pages. I could have finished this ages ago! It was a fun and interesting read, but necessarily limited in scope by the size. I think Olusoga is better when he's given room to roam and draw connections, but it was nice seeing the pretty reproduced artworks.

The War on Heresy by R I Moore. FINISHED. Oh boy, I was excited when the author promised his was a controversial conclusion and I wasn't disappointed. Moore argues, convincingly and cogently, that the "Cathar" heretics of popular history, and indeed academic history, did not really exist and were entirely a construction of the church establishment, all the "heresies" a product of the centralising and reforming church mission and how that interacted with local traditions, the Languedoc being distinguished only by the fact that centralisation had not penetrated there yet and it therefore looked more backwards in comparison to the rest of Europe. Any formal "Cathar heresy" was only established because of this persecution, creating new meaning in continued association with "the good men". The whole book is very interesting and the argument well done, and I lament by no buying rule because the further reading looks delicious. Will certainly return to this book again in the future!

As for my up nexts, I have a few on the go as well as the next Wheel of Time waiting in the wings.

Femina by Janina Ramirez. Promising a medieval history centred on women. I have been wanting this book for ages and waiting for the cheaper paperback to come out.

Notes from the Burning Age by Claire North. Started on a whim because I wasn't quite ready to dive back into Wheel of Time, it's so far an interesting mic of post-apoc dystopia, solarpunk, and fantasy. The climate change agenda has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer, which is exactly how I like my climate change agendas and exactly the level of subtlety which the subject needs.

A Crown of Swords by Robert Jordan (Wheel of Time #7). Much shorter than the last few, by which I mean it's less than 800 pages altogether.

Meetings With Manuscripts by Christopher de Hamel. My chonky history book of choice for a while. What could be more joyful to someone who loves history and books than reading about old books? And look at it! It's so pretty!

104 books remaining!

[gerogerigaogaigar]

Ike & Tina Turner - Proud Mary: The Best Of Ike & Tina Turner

We don't need more compilations. Ike & Tina are great, obviously. Tina Turner's voice goes from sweet to screaming on a dime and it's just amazing. But I don't think there's a need for a compilation. This is a greatest albums list and guess what? These two were more popular for their singles. I figured the Phil Spector Back to Mono was meant to cover for the fact that a lot of artists from the era operated this way. But no we also get a bunch of comps from individual artists. Anyway, fuck Ike Turner and I hope Tina Turner lives forever. Also fuck the haters she's great in Beyond Thunderdome.

Kelis - Kaleidoscope

Kelis is a fine vocalist, but the stars of this album are clearly producers The Neptunes. Soul, R&B, Hip-hop, House, and Funk blend together in some of the punchiest and bubbliest beats I've ever heard. Unfortunately there are some artistic decisions that absolutely baffle me. The intro track was embarrassing as was the hook on Caught Out There, and the lyrics of Mafia and Game Show felt uninspired at best. Thankfully the second half of the album is completely solid so if you can get past a few stumbling blocks it's overall a very good album.

Pixies - Surfer Rosa

I try to keep these reviews relatively brief. As such I'm stuck on this one. Do I talk about the massive influence this album had on 90s rock? Or do I talk about how much I like Black Francis and Kim Deal's vocal delivery? Is it the fact that without Surfer Rosa grunge as we know it probably wouldn't have evolved as it did? Or is it that I like the way the buzzsaw guitars and screaming vocals are mixed in a way that somehow makes them sound subdued? But I'm not really talking about two different things am I? I doubt that I'm getting something different out of this album than Kurt Cobain, PJ Harvey, Billy Corgan, or any of the other musicians that cite it as an influence did. It's influential because it is so fucking good that you can't come away from it unchanged.

Mariah Carey - The Emancipation Of Mimi

Yup this is what a pop album from 05 sounds like.

Aretha Franklin - Young, Gifted and Black

Most artists never manage 18 albums, and if they do it's basically never worth your time. Aretha Franklin isn't most artists. After starting in 61 Aretha Franklin put out roughly 2 albums a year for a decade. But listening to 72s Young, Gifted and Black it's clear that fatigue had not set in. Franklin's voice is one of the most powerful instruments in musical history. Honestly her whole career could have coasted on that fact. But no she puts thought and effort into creating arrangements that are especially good at transforming other people's songs into her own. Her version of The Long and Winding Road is the only one that matters and obviously her cover of Nina Simone's To Be Young, Gifted and Black is legendary.

Radiohead - In Rainbows

In Rainbows was, in my opinion, a return to form after a couple of weaker albums. Not bad albums, just weaker than Ok Computer or Kid A. Anyway In Rainbows takes the continued evolution of alternative experimental electronic rock and adds a really solid injection of psychedelia that rounds the whole thing out nicely. Thom Yorke mopes through a solid ten tracks singing about... uhh, well I have no idea what he's saying most of the time but the vibes are there. Radiohead expresses sadness through vague tone and moods more than direct lyricism.

[wickedlyqueer]

As someone who has been in this fandom for 8 years now, let me enlighten you: the Wicked fandom isn't a large community at all! We are, in fact, a very small fandom.

Paradoxical isn't it? Wicked is the second highest grossing Broadway musical and has been running for 21 years. It has had dozens of productions all across the world, and yet the fandom has been revolving around like 100 active people, max.

Wicked is a worldwide phenomenon, yes, but like you said, the franchise is old. The first book is from 1995, the musical is from 2003. The last book in the Wicked Years was published in 2011. Apart from different productions and cast changes, we've had no content for 13 years. Let me repeat that:

We've been entertaining ourselves for over 13 years now!

This is why gelphie has a lot of "sleeper agents" fans. People who see the musical, read the book(s), get obsessed with it for a time, and then move on. This is why sometimes (gelphie) posts "breach containment" and escape to the larger wlw community.

No, the gelphie fics aren't hiding on some other sites. Only the older ones (like pre-2010) are. We've been active on AO3 for years. And as a gelphie fic writer myself and someone who is very protective of this small but active community we've fostered over the years: remember that 833 works is a lot!

It would likely take you months to read it all. Seeing some comments that "it's all on ff" or "it's all lost" is heartbreaking! The gelphie tag on AO3 has one of the most groundbreaking, profound and engaging literary fan works I've ever read. We've had some absolute talent cross our borders over the years. It's a FEAST for any gelphie lover out there. It takes the book and musical and other source material and challenges it, engages with it and brings it to a new high!

I think I speak for the majority of the fandom when I say we love the new wave of interest in this ship! We love that so many people are seeing now what we've seen for years! Yes, we too, are absolutely baffled this ship has never been more popular. Honestly, where have you all been hiding? 😆

I get the bewilderment - it's a very common experience when first entering the fandom - but to all the new folks out there: please remember that before the movie dropped, this fandom was a small community that we've fostered and nurtured for many years. Don't dismiss the love we have for this show and pairing just because we aren't a big fandom!

Was I the only one really surprised by the shockingly low amount of Glinda x Elphaba fanfic on AO3?

Like. Wicked is an old fandom. And a large community too, I mean it's pretty well-known as far as musicals go. Gelphie has always been a popular ship, but there's only 833 works with their tag somehow?

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm used to wlw ship fics being very scarce on AO3, and I've been in fandoms where there's only like, 5 works about a pair, if any! But I'm in also in some much, much newer fandoms that have an insane amount of wlw fanfic despite not having been around for two decades like Wicked has. I mean, caitvi has 8,808 works tagged, villaneve has 3,949, wenclair has 7,162, you get the picture.

I don't have a point to make here tbh, it's just very puzzling to me? Like, are all the gelphie fics hiding on some other site or something? Because if so do let me know, I am starving.

[heretherebedork]

I’ve noticed on social media, not so much tumblr but other platforms, that there is a significant amount of people who see a show that has either internal conflict or just general romance without much outside conflict and say it has “no plot.” It is also typically for shows with a slower burn or just more slowly paced in general and i find it interesting because that is plot! Maybe I’m just getting old (but I’m only in my mid-20s so I don’t think so), but it’s fascinating to me to see so many people think that internal conflict = no plot. Recently I’ve seen it said about between us and it just baffles me. I think it makes sense to say a show is too slow paced for your liking or you don’t prefer shows with mostly internal conflict, or even that you don’t think the plot is well written or executed, but many people deny a plot in that show and many others all together. I’m not sure if I have a specific question but I’m just wondering how you feel about the topic. There’s been a lot of discussion about how changing social media platforms has decreased attention spans, i wonder if that’s making young people not appreciate slower shows (since I mostly see people younger than me make these critiques but not always). Is it that popular media like marvel and stranger things and game of thrones has made it seem like everything must happen in a show/movie for it to seem like anything is happening? Idk!

This comes down to the definition of plot and the vernacular definition of plot. What do people consider a plot and how do you define a plot versus character growth?

(Also, mid-20s is not old please don't say that you're a decade younger than me you are not old even in fandom.)

But for many people a plot is the external conflicts that hold a show together and the rest doesn't count as a plot. And that is one way of defining the plot of a show that can be accepted.

I mean, I have no idea about popular media. But what people view as plot is different and that's just how people see shows. And that's okay! Sometimes it isn't about slow, it's about the fact that the plot itself is the growth of the characters. That's a very specific kind of plot that doesn't feel like a plot to many people because it is typically isn't the only plot.

I don't think it's about slow. It's about motivations and story line and how it works and it can very hard to describe in a way that isn't 'this show has no plot!' because most of the words past that can get technical or take a long time or just... I get it. I get why people say that.

I know @absolutebl has talked about ideas similar to this and I definitely think that this is just the kind of thing that is an ongoing conversation within a fandom because plot itself can be questionable in BL even at the best of times if you consider plot to be a cohesive narrative of things that happen and are all supposed to make sense together.

Suffice to say, I don't take a side on this issue because I don't think it's about sides, I think it's about language.

[lesbianakaashi]

The Forgotten Shounen: Katekyo Hitman Reborn

This is not a “Why you should watch/read khr” or anything like that. This is just me going into the deep dive and throwing my findings at you. I’m making this because khr used to be my favourite series when I was 15 (I had plushees, posters, tradingcards, the art book etc) and now as an adult I constantly find myself baffled at how unknow it seems to be.

1. Okay first what is khr?

Katekyo Hitman Reborn! or just Reborn! is a series by Akira Amano which was published in Weekly Shounen Jump from 2004 to 2012 (with 42 volumes) and got an anime adaption which run from 2006 to 2010 on Tv Tokyo (with 202 episodes and one OVA).

2. What’s it about?

Khr is a parody of the italian mafia and plays in a world where the mafia is heavily influencial. The protagonist is the japanese middle schooler Sawada Tsunayoshi who is known as “No good Tsuna” because of his failing grades, general weak and cowardly personality and weak physics.

He becomes aware of the mafia world when a 2 year old baby called Reborn arrives at his house claiming to be the greatest hitman and declaring himself his home tutor. Reborn was send by the 9th head of the Vongola famiglia who is ready to retire and looking for a new heir. Which of course, is supposed to be Tsuna and now it's Reborns job to shape him into a worthy sucessor.

Tsuna rejects the violence of the mafia world and refuses the position as the 10th. Thanks to Reborn and his general craziness Tsuna meets different people and starts to make real friendships. Reborn wants 6 of those friends to be Tsuna's future guardians, basically a group of people which will be closest to him in the vongola famiglia. Tsuna might have no interest in those positions but the friendships he builds with them become really precious to him.

Reborns arrivial also brings in the enemies of the Vongola family which leads to Tsuna being forced to engage in battles. Generally Tsuna openly avoids fights and prefers to run away but will put himself in danger for his friends' sake or because of something Reborn did.

Through out the series Tsuna matures and gains strenght but he never becomes a power fantasy. He's just a guy with many flaws who grows through the human connections he makes.

Personally I think the relationship between Reborn and Tsuna is one of the best student teacher reltaionships in all of manga only topped by Mob and Reigen from Mob Psycho 100. Especially the last arc really underlines their unique relationship to me.

Furthermore, khr offers a new and unique battle system: The flames. I'm not gonna go into to too much detail but the general idea is that one fights with their dying will flame which basically turns off your the savety switch so you can fight with everything you have. The flames are seperated into different categories such as: sky, storm, mist, rain, sun, lightning and cloud and have different attributes asigned to each one. Tsuna's use of the sky flame and his transformation when using it is still one of my favourite shounen transformations to this day.

3. What happened?

The series did really well and then not so well over the course of its serialisation. After the manga got an anime adaption it increased in populairty and video games, light novels, and other products such as CDs were created based on the series. Reborn is one of the best selling series of Weekly Shōnen Jump and has sold around 30 Million volumes overall. It was and still is very popular in Japan but rather unknown in the west.

According to the article "The Rise and Fall of Weekly Shonen Jump: A Look at the Circulation of Weekly Jump" khr was the 10th bestselling series in Weekly Shōnen Jump, with a total of 7 million copies sold in 2007.

This number increasing to 15 milion in 2008. Which placed khr into the 4th best selling series of 2008 in Japan.

Between 2008 and 2010 those sales declined but still kept strong with khr as the 6th top selling manga in 2009, 8th best selling in 2010 and then 24th best selling in 2012.

In November 2014, readers of the Da Vinci magazine voted khr number 17 on a list of Weekly Shōnen Jump's greatest manga series of all time.

After the anime came to an apprupt stop in 2010 for unknown reasons the manga sells took a visible hit. (Apparently the studio wanted to put the anime on halt because they were busy with other projects and give Akira Amano time to develop her story but I couldn't find any source for this claim) Furthermore, the rushed last chapters of the manga in 2012 declined the popularity of the series even more. There's no offical statement as to why the manga was ended in such a way but it's reasonable to assume that Jump either cut it considering the decreasing sales or Akira Amano choose to end it for personal reasons.

Nontheless, Tsuna not being included in Jump Force (a fighting game where you can play as different characters from Jump) in 2019 even tho he made it in earlier Jump Stars games also underlines the decreased interest in the series.

Rumors on a reboot or anime adaption of the last two arcs surface from time to time but are genereally unlikely. Artland the studio which made khr has gone bankrupt around 2015-2016. It might be taken on by another studio but rather uncommen especially with such an old series.

4. Art style

The khr anime ended over 10 years ago and the old art style might not be appealing to newer audiences.

Especailly because the anime adaption follows Akira Amanos old art style which heavily developed within the years. Here a picture comparing characters in the new art style:

A modern anime adaption in the new art style would be aesthetically pleasing. It would probably look similiar to Psycho Pass since Akira Amano did the concept art for this series.

(My personal art student hot take is that both art styles are unique and fun. Up to this day Akira Amano still has my favourite art style and even if the amount folds in the characters clothing is a little extreme I love it dearly.)

5. Criticism

The show is not without flaws and even if I greatly enjoy it it wouldn't be right not to adress them.

Daily Life Arc:

A lot of people view the first 20 to 25 episodes as fillers and quickly lose intererst in the series. This is due to the fact that Akira Amano inteded the series to be a gag manga and focuses the first chapters on world building, character introduction and comical narratives. It's rumored that the decision to develop the story into a battle shounen was made because the sales weren't doing well enough at first. So the first chapters/episodes may seem titidious but are necessary for the story and the development of the characters. The tonal shift from a more gintama like gag manga to a darker battle focused story can also be offputting to some viewers.

Either way a lot of people blame this arc when discussing why khr never got an english dub or didn't end up on Toonami. I've also read that the manga never finished serializing in the north america. However, it finished in other western languages like german and spanish.

Censoring:

The anime censors A LOT. From Gokudera's smoking habit, Yamamoto's whole character arc which deals with heavy themes such as depression and suicidal thoughts. The general bloodiness of the manga was censored and sometimes whole chapters and characters were left out even if those were important to the devolopment of others.

Filler episodes:

Out of the 202 episodes the anime has around 29 filler episodes which makes roughly 14 %.

Sexism:

Even if Reborn was written by a woman most female characters are rather flat and their storylines often tied to a male character in one way or another.

Genereal things:

Khr, like many other long running series, is sometimes criticised for a lack of world building or unpopular narrative choices.

6. Hope?

Khr isn't exactly dead. As stated before the series is still very popular in Japan and still gets new merch pretty regulary. There are also petitions floating around for a reboot or a new anime season but those never get a lot of traction. Furthermore #Reborn2期アニメ化 (#Reborn2ndAnimation) used to get some traction on twitter not too long ago. Last year the Anime News Network did a poll on which anime the readers would like to see a rebooot of and khr placed second.

Either way here's a collection of recent khr things I could find.

- In 2018 a new bluray set was released in north america

- The khr stage play reached yet another new season

- A mobile game was released last year

- Currently ongoing anime cafe event called "Concerto di Vongola"

- Last month there was an event with the former VAs and stage play actors where they discussed their favourite khr episodes.

- There has been an increase in blind reacts to the openings on youtube which might bring in a new fan base. The biggest one I could find had around 90k views and was made in 2019. On this note check out the soundtrack. The first openeing Drawing Days by SPLAY still makes me go insane (but I'm biased of course)

There also renewed hope for a new season/reboot because Shaman King, Inuyasha and Bleach got anounced for new seasons after a long hiatus. It's important to keep in mind that the circumstances for those series are differnt tho. For example bleachs new anime is often tied to the immense success of the gatcha game.

7. Conclusion

Khr is a series which used to be a flagship for Weekly Shounen Jump and is deeply beloved by it's fans, especially in Japan. It influenced other shounen series like bnha. It would be nice to see it gaining a bigger fanbase in the west :)

[thehollowprince]

"Pretty girl, pretty boy, and boom, instant couple." fandom and shipping culture has just completely warped our brains hasn't it? As if it isn't still important to see interracial couples in media, the fact that they are (presumably) heterosexual doesn't make it any less groundbreaking. Same with Scott and Kira, because how often does a popular show feature an interracial couple where neither party is white?

Oh, you are preaching to the choir!

Fandom has gotten to the point where it's so far removed from its source material that they might as well be two entirely separate entities.

For example, I saw a post recently that really hit the nail on the head.

Squid Game.

I can't tell you how many memes I saw making light of the show's incredibly heavy and dark subject matter. Or the fanarts that sexualized the guys in the red jumpsuits and geometric masks. Hell, I even saw celebrities that were having Squid Game themed parties, where they dressed up in costumes from the show. Fandom looked at this show about the exploitation of the poor by the wealthy for their entertainment, and said "it's all about the aesthetics".

It gets worse when you add shipping into the mix.

I have said it before and I'll say it again: shipping is the death of fandom.

Too many people are concerned with making their coffee shop AUs or their Soulmate AUs (or whatever) and not the actual text they're supposed to be basing everything on.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a good AU as much as the next person, but I base my opinions on characters and ships on what actually happened "on screen".

What is truly baffling about the whole thing, particularly in fandoms like Teen Wolf, is how shipping not only completely dominates the fandom, but attempts to rewrite canon as well.

When I started to get involved in the fandom, season three was airing. I had only just finished season one, and so you can imagine my confusion when I saw that Sterek was such a big part of that fandom. At first I thought that maybe something had happened in the second season that I hadn't gotten to yet, but once I watched it, I was even more confused. There is literally nothing behind that ship except two pretty faces. Their entire relationship throughout the actual show was either sarcastic barbs or being outright antagonistic to each other. To make matters worse, they then rewrite the entire show to make the ship seem plausible to them and others, so that everything that created these characters and the story itself is now meaningless, because they've moved completely into an AU.

But then, when you criticize said ship, you get either harassed by A, or accused of being a homophobe. With the latter, I got a lot of messages back in the day, because I was more interested in Danny... y'know, the actual gay character on the show. But no, fandom chose to focus on a crack ship composed of two characters that had never been described as anything other than heterosexual.

But like you said, interracial relationships are important, and yet sadly incredibly rare, especially those where both parties aren't white. Sadly, that brings us back to the racism that permeates fandom. It's neither surprising nor unexpected, though maybe a little startling in its ferocity, but no, never a surprise. After all, racism is built into every aspect of our society, from our infrastructure to our politics to our educational system. Of course it'll be in our entertainment as well.

Racism and heteronormativity are the cornerstones that our society is built on. And you may be asking yourself, what does the latter have to do with a slash ship. Well, after looking at it for years, I can tell you that Sterek is a slash ship written for (and by) straight people. It's one of a number.

[sporadiclilbook]

Songbird

Yan!Childe x Singer/Dancer!Khaenri'ahn! reader

Proof-read by: @choquackette

a/n: in a way, does this count as a songfic :D? Also I'm gonna use Lost in Thoughts All Alone for this. And to be fair you're pretty much like Shigure/Azura from fates in this

TW: Kidnapping

You are the ocean's gray waves

Destined to seek life beyond the shore

Just out reach

Your voice rang out through the crowd who was listening. Your Hydro Vision glowed as you made particles of water float around you. It created an illusion that made them looked like it was sparkling. It was mesmerising. To Childe, it amazed him how you used it so beautifully for a show. Unlike his more....bloodthirsty uses of his. To think a Vision can do something so graceful and morbid at the same time.

Of course he had his Electro Delusion but this is the Vision we're talking about. He uses it as a weapon while you used it for entertainment. To be honest, he never thought he'd see something like this. It was all thanks to a mission he has to do. Tailing a guy who was in debt to the Fatui and all. Childe think he was a fool. Instead of trying to make his business better, he wastes it on shows like these. But now that he sees you, he understand why. Your exotic appearance was a sight to behold. The only known person to have the same eyes as you was that Favonius Cavalry Captain and he only showed one eye. One already can make one look intriguing but having both made you look ethereal.

Yet the water ever change

Flowing like time

The path is yours to climb

Your dance was graceful, fluid movements that did flow like water. Childe think you could've been a good sword fighter if you were able to incorporate these movements into sword fighting. But for now he'll enjoy your voice and dancing. There's just something about it he loved so much. Sure fighting is always the one he loves but there's just something about you that he's attracted to. Was it your appearance? Vocals? Movements? Or those pupils of yours? He thinks it's quite silly, he doesn't even know who you are and yet......

A burdened heart

Sinks into the ground

Here he is, eager to look for you after this whole mission thing. If there's one thing he knows, is to not judge someone's prowess by appearance. Take the traveler for example. They have a petite form and yet they were able to defeat his Foul Legacy form! Who knows what you might have in store for him? Just the thought of you actually being able to fight makes him feel giddy.

Alas, all he can do for now is listen to your song. With that said, he didn't forget his mission. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw his target. The man was also in awe of looking at you. Too in awe of noticing his presence that is. He'll get right back to him when your show's over.

A veil falls away without a sound

Not day nor night

Wrong nor right

For truth and peace, you'll fight

He wondered if his siblings would love your singing. Sleeping to a lullaby sounded like a nice idea to him. Why he even thought of that was a mystery to him. Is this what they called love at first sight? He just can't help but wished to woken up by your voice that will roll out his name softly in the morning.

Sing with me a song

Of silence and blood

The rain falls, but can't wash away the mud

Within my ancient heart dwells

Madness and pride

Can't no one hear my cry?

The song ended and the crowd threw a round applause. You bowed and left the stage immediately. Childe, who hasn't forgot his mission, quickly trailed the guy he was after outsidd. "Ah! Hello there Mr. Wei Xing! I reckon you know who I am yes?" And so from there, he scared the poor man to the death with threats and grim reminder of the debt he owed. But Childe was feeling a bit merciful today "Tell you what I'll give you some more time on one condition." Wei Xing, his target, was confused. The Fatui giving a bit of leverage? Still, he would be an idiot to refuse "And that condition is....?"

Childe chuckled at his quick response. It's natural after all. All of his intimidation must have triggered his survival instincts. "Just answer me this. Who was that singer with a Hydro Vision?" Wei Xing was baffled. That's all he wanted? "A-as far as I know, t-their name is (Y/N). They're a performer that was passing by Liyue to gain more popularity across Teyvat." Childe hummed as he hears it. 'A travelling performer huh? Looks like I'll have to act quick if I want to meet them' There was moment of silence before he asked another question "When are they leaving?" "I-in a few days"

Childe let him go and as promised gave him more time for him to pay his debt. Should he fails again to do so.....he'll be history. He only had a few days to meet and talk to you so he has to be quick. Thankfully being a Fatui Harbinger does have it perks. One of those perks being having informants that can collect informations for you. And since this is no top secret info, it was quite easy to find out where you were staying and exactly how many days before you were gone.

As he wait for you at the road that led guests from Wangshu Inn to Liyue, he thought of what you might say. Maybe you'll recognise him right away? Or perhaps you were too innocent to notice the horrors of the Fatui. As he notices your figure walking on the horizon, he prepared to greet you casually. But then he was perplexed by your outfit. It seemed less travelling performer and more of a......fighter? Interesting. He drops the idea of greeting you and opted to follow your path instead.

He followed you until you reached a domain that was near one of the ruins. You stood in front of the entrance as he awaits your next move, intentionally letting his presence seep out. "You're not doing that much of a great job to hide yourself, Fatui. Or is it intentional?" Childe walks out from the spot he was hiding in and approached you slowly while saying "Well, isn't this a surprise? I just happened to be passing b-" His actions stopped midway as your pointed a spear at him. "Not a step closer, what do you want?"

Your starred pupils were sharped and narrowed. It held an intense emotion in it. Childe held up his hands in some sort of mock surrender and laughed a bit "Hey now! There's no need to get aggressive, is there? I was just curious why someone like you is doing here. Not exactly a good place to perform isn't it?"

"That's none of your business."

"Are you gonna go inside this domain?"

"...."

"If so, can I follow?"

"No."

"Please?"

"I said no."

"I'm very good at fighting you know. It'll be a shame if someone like you gets inju--"

Your spear was closer to him now. Threatening to slice him open any minute you wanted to. It didn't faze him at all. In fact it made him thrilled. He knew there was something about you that was enchanting and perhaps this was it. An unrelenting fighting spirit. In a blink of an eye, he immediately summoned his hydro javelin and parried your spear. You backed away in surprise but kept your guard up.

"Listen I have no time for you Fatui. Leave me be. I have more important matters to attend to." Childe just gave a fox-like grin at your attempt to intimidate him. "Is that so? Like what exactly?" You rolled your eyes at him. He was getting annoying for sure. "Like I said, none of your business." It looks like you might have to halt your plans for tonight. The Abyss Order can wait. "So, what are you gonna do little star?" Without warning you immediately engulfed yourself in a torrent of water and disappears. Childe was shocked when he sees it but still grinned. If you wanted to be a challenge then so be it. If he can't bother you during your 'missions' then he'll bother you during the day.

And that is exactly what he did.

For two days straight he kept trying to talk with you whenever you were out visiting the Liyue Harbour. At first you tolerated him but now he was insufferable. You were glad you were leaving as soon as possible next day but Childe was not having any of that. In just the span of two days his little curiosity had turned into a tsunami of obsession. Your expressions and reactions not to mention the little heart warming moments he saw you cheering up some of the kids in Liyue. He wants to know even more of you.

And precisely why he is fighting you right now.

As he has deducted, your move was as graceful as your dance. Your fighting style was as unique as your eyes. Something he has never seen before. You dodged his flurry of arrows, panting while doing so. How long has he fought you? It felt like an eternity. You tried to dash to him and deliver a swift strike but him and his stupid shield won't let you. You jumped back just in time before he strike his hydro swords at you. You can't even get an elemental advantage here, you had to mostly rely on your weapon.

"Well (Y/N), it's been a fun fight really. But why don't you surrender now? You're tired aren't you? I promise things will go smoothly if you just give up."

You didn't want to. There's no way you'll give up. What does he wants with you anyway? You only stared down at him in silence, refusing to answer. "Ah, stubborn now aren't we? I guess I'll have to use a little force...." He activated his Delusion and immediately dashed towards you, giving you no time to react. The electricity made you groan in pain. You use your spear as a stabiliser from falling to the ground but you were running out of energy at this point.

Before you could fall, Childe took a hold of your body. "See? It's not that hard to give up." You wanted to mutter a remark but darkness shrouded your vision before you fainted. You woke up in an unfamiliar room. Certainly not Liyue's architecture nor your homeland's. Your first thought was to look for an escape.

The door was locked.

Windows were barred.

The wardrobe had the clothes you brought with you across Teyvat along with some new ones.

There was a chain at your leg that's long enough to get you to the bathroom.

Your Vision and weapon was missing.

You waited in silence, pondering what to do. You certainly can't escape like this. But then you heard the door open. And as expected it was him. "Did you had a good sleep? You were knocked out for a while there." You scowled at him "Drop the act, where am I?" Childe hummed before answering "You're in Snezhnaya of course! Where else would I bring you? I'm quite lucky to be able to bring you here and visit my siblings! Say would you like to visi--" "Why would I do that?"

His grin dropped and his eyes stared at you. His eyes was....hollow...empty...devoid of any humanity in them. He walked towards you and you instinctively stepped back. He had you trapped against a wall. He lifted up your chin and let out a small but terrifying smile "Well, because your fate is in my hands. There's nothing you can do now, is there? But I'll forgive your behaviour for now.....if you sing that is."

You hated it. You hated the fact he was right. So you had no choice but to stay obedient and be his 'little songbird' until you found a window of opportunity. He lets go of your chin and sat down on a chair. With a heavy heart, you opened your mouth to sing.

You are the ocean's gray waves

Destined to seek life beyond the shore

Just out of reach

Childe smiled as you sing. He's sure you'll come around and fall in love with him soon enough.

Yet the water ever change

Flowing like time

The path is yours to climb

Shame that you can't meet his family yet. They would've love you. He can't wait for that day to arrive though. He can't help but feel joy. His little songbird, all his and no one else.

You are the ocean's gray waves.