#the only other fandom that i can think of and had a rivaling quality was VLD

[moonilit]

Please talk about this fic you read, I want to hear all about it ❤️

What can i say im losing my mind about it, I don’t know if I should gush about how much i love the world of ffvii and its characters or that fic specifically because that’s where the fic is from (actually two fics by the same author)

long long long rant ahead:

Its by kzam and I literally couldn’t stop reading! Seriously they are so good!! Even Catalyst that is a Cloud/Genesis pairing?? I wasn’t sure about or how would they work out? And im sure they never really met in canon so how would they work? But because their other work were amazing i jumped in because, sure why not and OH MY GOD that is one of my favorite Clouds of all times! Seriously I loved the comedy pits, it was literally the highlight in catalyst for me, so naturally and not forced.

Then there is takes one to know one that is my favorite by far like Zack is so in love y’ll someone help him 😭

he fucked up when he first met cloud and told him he was only interested in one night and cloud was like ‘yeah no, i like you as my bff’ and he fucked up, zack fucked up because he ended up developing actual feelings like those four chapters are so painful (in the best of ways) like the pining is so strong it’s creating it’s own magnetic field 😭 Zack just had to pull through Cloud just seeing him as a friend god that was so painful to read (but we all know how this story ends ;))

like im making it sound like its pure romance but there is actually a plot and the fic isn’t even from zack pov, It’s just so painful and amusing to see what zack does from cloud pov and seeing how cloud doesn’t really pick up on it, just makes you feel more for zack. That idiot, did u really had to open ur big mouth!??

Im so not over how much i loved both of these two fics, they are officially on my top tier list I can’t even organize my thoughts about them!

They are good fics and even better for people who don’t know much about ffvii universe, it’s pretty much a modern au and any unique concepts to its world are explained within the story well, so no one will feel lost

Thank u for giving me the opportunity to just gush about them i was about to explode!!!

[theheirofthesharingan]

Do you believe in the "curse of hatred" that Tobirama won't shut up about? Are Uchihas really dangerous like that?

I've never really gone into Tobirama's head because I don't personally like him as a character/person, but I did do some research for this ask.

So, he dislikes Uchiha. He lived in the Warring Era with Uchiha clan being their worst enemies and their biggest rivals. Of course that would influence his views on the clan and its people, because as soon as he sees Sasuke with Orochimaru, his instant reaction is to lump him with the man, without knowing anything about him.

However, at the same time, he also associates Uchiha clan with love.

As someone who had battled against them, saw how they fought and their strengths and weaknesses, he has a fair idea of the psychology of the Uchiha. What he's describing has a living and shining example in none other than Madara himself.

He seems to begrudge and admire the Uchiha. He's prejudiced against them and it's only natural because of their shared history. So, when he's calling out the Uchiha, it has a good reason. If the Uchiha were asked about the Senju, they would most likely have the similar opinion. Not all, because, yes, they accepted Tobirama's leadership over Madara's, but still. And if you notice, Tobirama specifically mentions people who shared Madara's will. He had a positive view on Kagami Uchiha.

Anyway, like I said before, he understood the Uchiha pretty well and it's not right to say that his judgement was "wrong" because what he's describing is actually a very human response, and that much love can lead to that much hatred too. It's just the extreme of the emotions and he's objectively not wrong about it. He's wrong to associate those qualities only with the Uchiha, though.

Sharingan reflects one's deepest despair and pain and we know extreme trauma awakens one's Sharingan and Mangekyo Sharingan. And the more an Uchiha suffers, the more powerful their eyes become. Sasuke is a prime example of it. Kakashi, who isn't even an Uchiha, when he felt pain and regret of the insurmountable level, he also awakened his Mangekyo. Was he an Uchiha? No. He was a human who had suffered extremely in a moment and reacted to how Tobirama describes an Uchiha would. Yes, Kakashi doesn't go out of his way to cause destruction like Obito does, but that's simply because of the outside influence of the people around them.

Kakashi was surrounded by people who loved him and Obito was lonely and manipulated into thinking he could change some things. In short, Obito's vulnerability and loneliness were taken advantage of, while Kakashi found people who cared about him.

Furthermore, people in the fandom defend and justify the Uchiha hating Senju, because of everything, but then turn a blind eye to whatever Uchiha did to Senju as well.

This, baby Itama was surrounded by a bunch of grown Uchiha men.

And killed.

Senju are evil and cruel for killing Izuna and anyone who loves that clan is depraved according to the fandom activists, but hey, how dare Tobirama hold grudges against the Uchiha for doing this to his brother.

The endless cycle of hate and violence that the main story repeatedly talks about stems from this. Truthfully, both the Uchiha and the Senju were at fault for perpetuating it. For what happened to the Uchiha clan, only Senju were not responsible, but also Madara.

Senju and Uchiha were both prejudiced against each other and they both institutionalised it. Madara through raw power when he continued to attack Konoha after becoming rogue, and Tobirama did it through the political power he held. Neither of them were innocent. But as is said, victors write history, and the narrative glorifies the idealogy shared by Naruto, Uchiha's love is antagonised and Senju are shown as good guys.

The Shinobi system itself is ruthless. It doesn't see humans as humans. I wouldn't call Tobirama a perpetrator of it, because he's the product of two system too, but he fails in his judgment, and is quite wrong about what he thinks about the Uchiha.

We see intense and violent reactions in many other characters in wake of losing the people they and the heartbreak that follows. How many of them were Uchiha? Konoan? Gaara? Nagato? None.

Tobirama doesn't see Uchiha in the positive light and it is understandable. He wants people who are loyal to Konoha. I believe we know more about Hashirama and his ideology regarding the village than we know about Tobirama. For Hashirama, the lives of people were important and that's why he wanted to establish the village. But what did Tobirama want? Did he care about the land? Did he care about the people? He seems completely okay with the fact that Uchiha clan was exterminated.

And contrary to the popular belief in the pro Uchiha camp that claims he "praised" Itachi for massacring his clan, the man doesn't see Itachi any differently, despite hearing the whole story from his own student and successor. What was he really so fixated on the village for if he cannot love its people?

Tobirama describes the intense and powerful reactions in an Uchiha that has them cursed. He says "cursed clan" rather than the "cruse of hate", because I can't find the exact words where he says that (I'd add those if someone can provide me with page/panels).

He has bad experiences, but his problem is that despite being in the position of the power and being responsible for everyone, he refused to grow up. He refuses to sympathise with a child whose family was murdered at the orders of his successor. He refuses to sympathise with a child who was forced to kill his parents and then died at his brother's hands.

He sees his own pain greater than the others (Sasuke's, Itachi's, Madara's) and justifies his prejudices based on them.

[mania-sama]

If you don't mind me asking, who are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite (fictional) characters ever from any media? Why love them?

thanks so much for the ask!! i always love your questions <3

God, this is a hard one. Because I've consumed and fallen in love with so many pieces of media in my life, it's hard for me to tell who exactly my favorite characters are. The pool is just too big to choose from! But I'll try my best regardless!

Also an important note that as I grow older, this list could very well become out-dated very fast. Who knows what I will see or what medias I will consume that will alter my perception of reality?

In no particular order:

Bakugou Katsuki [My Hero Academia] -> THE OG. I REPEAT. THE OG ONLINE OBSESSION. My history with My Hero Academia goes way back on my online persona, when I was a wee lad and experiencing my first online hyperfixation (Warrior Cats not included). I had him as online nickname and profile picture on multiple accounts and instances. I look back and cringe on this era of my life, but I still will not stand for slander on this character. I obsessed over him because he is an incredibly well-written character, with faults, passions, interesting qualities, and an insane amount of character growth that, arguably, rivals Zuko. His character motivations still stand out to me to this day. I quit reading/watching BNHA around the war arc, like right when it finished and Midoriya fled the scene. No particular reason for quitting, I think; I just moved on from that part of my life. But, Bakugou will always stick with me just a little. AND YOU KNOW WHAT. I liked him when everyone else still hated him. I liked him before it was cool to like him. Shout out to 2020-2021 me for being an OG. I'm still a "Ground Zero" truther to this very day.

Percy Jackson [Percy Jackson and the Olympians] -> Anyone that has read the PJO and/or the following series will not be surprised to find him here. He's like Spiderman but better, which is saying a lot because I really, really like Spiderman. Percy Jackson is there for every kid who has ever felt out of place in this world; for every kid who has struggled in succeeding in any aspect of their life; for every kid who grew up in a household different from their peers; for every kid who behaves in ways that other people don't seem to understand. Spiderman was a character created to represent the reader of superhero comics: a teenage white boy. Of course, later iterations of Spiderman come to represent more individuals, but that is not who he was originally. Percy Jackson is a character that comes from a place of necessity. He is a character that represents the reader of PJO: a kid who doesn't quite fit in with the rest, for one reason or another. Percy is funny, ultra-overpowered, relatable, and still gets his happy ending. Nothing more to want in a character, really.

Robbie White | Axe Boy [Identity V] -> My hunter main for Identity V. I don't really know how to explain why I love him so much, and how he has become a character I get emotional over very fast. I seem to find one random character from a game and attach myself to them like a jellyfish. Not only is his backstory devastatingly heartbreaking, he is adorable in all of his animations, standby motions, emotes, etc.. He has carried me to many victories, and he will continue to carry me in every match I play. I literally forced myself to download IDV on my laptop and play a few matches just so I could get his Little Nightmares crossover skin. No matter how far he falls from meta, they can never make me hate you Robbie.

Kugisaki Nobara [Jujutsu Kaisen] -> I had a LOT of internal debate over this. I guess I can't confirm until I leave the fandom, but for right now, she's definitely one of my top favorite characters of all time. I'm considering writing an analysis on her because she is just so good. I have never seen a female character in a piece of media that isn't explicitly feminine embody femininity so well. It actually impresses me to a degree I cannot reasonably tell you. She's just perfect. Everything about her is everything that I want to be as a woman. She's comfortable in her own skin, confident not in a man-ish way, but in a distinctly feminine way. What gives that she wants to feel pretty and strong in a physical way? Who is saying that she can't have both? Not to mention that she's also extremely strategically smart. I love her. I really, really do. Sometimes, I imagine strangling Gege's avatar and it makes me very happy.

Oikawa Tooru [Haikyuu] -> I honest-to-God cannot believe he made it here. I tried so hard to find a character to replace him. I did not want him here out of SPITE. But here he is, somehow, and not replaced by Miles Morales (who, upon reflection, would only be here because I did not want Oikawa to be here. Miles didn't even make my honorable mentions. That is proof enough, I suppose, that Oikawa somehow deserves his spot). I've talked about it before, but I'll reiterate it here: Oikawa is a character that is very, very easy to toy around with. He is THE teenager, and THE adult. You can project pretty much any anxiety or worry onto him and it'll make sense because he's got so many self-worth issues it's laughable. I don't want to spend more time talking about him than he deserves. I am as disappointed as you are that he made this list.

Honorable Mentions:

Razor & Xiao [Genshin Impact] -> They would've made the list if I could've put one above the other for real. Silly whimsical attachment with immense appreciation for the character writing vs serious love for the writing and development of the character beyond words. Simply an impossible choice.

Akabane Karma [Assassination Classroom] -> He was my favorite character of all time at one point in history and is still the inspiration behind my Tiktok nickname (that I may change one day). Unfortunately, it's been a long time since I've watched the anime and I can't remember much of what drew me to Karma in the first place that isn't already achieved in other of my favorite characters. Still, I thought I'd honor him here.

[masochist-marmot]

In defence of "problematic" ships

CW: references to abusive relationships

There seems to be a growing mindset in fandom spaces that a ship is not valid if it's somehow problematic. Interestingly, the criticism towards a ship is rarely formed as "I don't like it"/"it makes me uncomfortable". Instead, they often attack the shipper with a "you must enjoy being abused and will end up being killed by your partner" or whatever.

Can we not?

First of all, and I'm so sorry to break it to you, but these characters are not real people. They have been constructed to serve a narrative. And seeing an interesting dynamic on the screen/page/whatever and thinking it's worth exploring does not mean you want to be inserted into that situation, nor does it mean that you endorse it in real life. It makes me wonder if these people even understand what fiction is for. I've had my share of toxic relationships, and I'd rather not get into another one. So it's a good thing that I can explore these dynamics safely without putting myself in danger.

And before you bring up the danger of romanticising abuse, I get it. There's plenty of media out there that depicts abuse and toxicity as somehow desirable qualities, and I understand that media can reflect and influence the audience's worldview. This is where you pause for a second, put on your media literacy goggles, and try to see what's actually being said. Depiction does not equal endorsement. Also, shippers are usually just existing in their own spaces and not affecting the wider public in any way.

Secondly, I see a lot of variations of "these characters are not in love because they are not good to each other". Hello? Are we seriously going to claim that romantic feelings only exist in their most pure, uncomplicated, healthy form? Interestingly enough, these sentiments are usually applied to queer ships. When Honkai: Star Rail dropped an animated short containing a prolonged and incredibly sapphic dance scene that ended in Black Swan being mentally (though unintentionally?) violated by Acheron, I saw so many comments along the lines of "I thought it was pretty gay until the mental flaying happened". I mean, it's still pretty gay. Just because you don't think it's healthy, doesn't mean it stops being queer. Are we just that afraid of showing problematic queer representation? We are people, and our relationships will be messy, and I think it's okay to show that. Though once again, I'm aware that for a long time it was all that could be shown, and that wasn't great either. I just feel like the pendulum has swung a bit too much towards the other end.

I've also seen a lot of comments to the effect of "he said he hated him so your ship is invalid". I will excuse these comments if you're on the autism spectrum and have difficulty reading past the literal meaning of words, otherwise, let's dig up those media literacy goggles again. In the next paragraph I'm going to vehemently defend my beloved akeshu, so massive spoilers for Persona 5 Royal.

In his confidant rank 8, Akechi says to the protagonist, in no uncertain terms: "I hate you." And the next time you see him alone, he shoots you in the head (it's complicated, okay?). So you could take this and run with it and go bash akeshu shippers over the head with it. Or you could try to analyse his actions and motivations over the course of the entire game and come to the conclusion that his hatred is a shorthand for a bundle of complicated emotions. Morgana even picks up on it after you fight him later in the game: "You don't really hate Joker, do you?" What Akechi actually feels is admiration and jealousy, since he feels that the protagonist has been handed everything he himself had to work so hard for. It's companionship for his first ever friend and respect for a worthy rival who will rise up to all of his challenges. It's regret that he couldn't have met Joker earlier in life when his master plan wasn't already in motion and his only driving force in life. All of this bundles up in something the emotionally stunted teenager can't and probably doesn't want to unpack, and he settles on what's both very simple and familiar to him: hatred. Which he probably latches onto so that he's capable of putting a bullet in the head of the only friend he's ever had. I could (and honestly, probably will) rant about Akechi on other occasions, but I'll leave it here for now. The point is: If the best you can muster for invalidating a ship is this, I honestly don't feel like I have to listen to your opinion.

Just to be clear, I don't think you need to go find the justifications for your ships in the actual text. In this rant I've mostly brought up ships that stem from how the characters interact in canon. (Though oddly enough, queer ships tend to be subjected to this kind of scrutiny way more than straight ones.) But sometimes it's fun to explore the most unlikely relationship dynamics by shipping characters who barely even interact. They're not what I find personally interesting, but go off. You will never find me gatekeeping ships. Even if it's Hisoka/Gon, in which case you're free to do your thing but I hope I'll never see it.

TLDR; I'm sick of people attacking each other over problematic ships. The characters aren't real, you can't hurt their feelings. But I am, as hard as that may be to grasp sometimes.

[devine-fem]

As someone who likes Damijon as both platonic and romantic…I don’t understand the obsession of certain antis bring up whole age gap thing when it comes to Damian and Jon. It’s getting really old and pissing me off at this point.

I can’t recall a fandom I’ve been in where antis kept bringing up an age gap between two characters.

Idk if I’m talking out of my ass but it sounds like as if antis think the fandom puts Damijon in sexual situations 24/7 when that’s not the case.

Jfc no one is forcing you to ship them if you don’t (it’s not even canon!) but don’t go around accusing the fandom as p*d*s just to make a point. ( I know in fandoms there some weirdos too but it doesn’t make up a whole)

Let the Damijon fandom enjoy whatever crumbles they are getting right now…because it’s really just crumbles at this point.

If those antis also consist of those who are our rival ships (they know who they are) like yall are getting canon content rn from DC if you’re upset with the quality of it speak with your wallet idk…???

Sorry for the rant it’s just for the most part Damijon fandom has been pretty chill (excluding Twitter that’s another can of worms) and I hate the accusations parts of the fandom love to make.

Yeah… people don’t talk about how Jon had to be 11 to Damian’s 13 before he left for space because they only read super sons, they never really look at any other source or think about their ages as more than that because tom taylor said out his mouth that they were 3 years apart when dissing the ship BUT he admits himself to not know their exact ages and that it could be a 2 year age gap.

So I just think of it as two years, and with two years I don’t really care because personally even in my youth I’ve been with people who are two years older with no issue because age alone doesn’t determine whether or not someone is taking advantage of you for obvious reasons. Age gaps are not tangible things, to some people what you consider weird is normal to someone else.

Then there’s the fact that neither Jon or Damian have birthdays. Damian was aged up for teen titans which people don’t seem to care about. Among other things like how Jon and Damian are the same age in most other universes… did you know that? Also, people like to say theres a maturity gap but forget that Damian was the immature one that picked fights. Plus, when characters grow up beside each other then it’s less ‘weird’ cause then they are expierencing similar traumas. It’s probably lots smaller then we think.

When I talk about them with a three year age gap then its probably platonic but sometimes romantic, two years then its sometimes platonic or romantic, one year, platonic or romantic and I stay between these because their age can slightly change their dynamic. It’s for fun, its exploring their platonic dynamic if it had elements of romance to it. Its interchangeable to me but for the most parts its two.

They are barbies that I play with at my own free will. They are not real people, they may imitate life but they do not infact replicate it.

So yeah… when they are young I only ever have really seen or interacted with media where J and D have not done more than maybe peck. Its just supposed to be cute and sweet.

Do people not understand the concept of the fact Jon and Damian should not be getting into a serious relationship while they are young or else it would go horribly wrong? Do they not understand that a lot of the ships appeal in the childhood friends TO lovers factor?

It kind of bothers me to be having to put the fact that I l hate Jonjay and like Daminika in my bio so people can get a feel for the type of person I am. And “rival” ships? there’s no rivalry, I don’t feel threatened by other peoples ships at all… especially if they’re canon… unless its like jonjay where the origin of the ship is inherently problematic, substanceless and built on character assassination… but we hate damijon and praise THAT? We say that damijon is worse than that? I’m sorry but jonjay to jon kent is jayroy to roy harper to me.

Twitter is very strange, very very strange people on that app to which this morning I had to uninstall because I KNEW that they would feel threatened by damijons today and hate profusely in response to it.

Although, you guys gotta put that age gap shit to bed…

Dami look 14 here to you? If Damijons are the ones who don’t read comics then how do we know that they are well in their 20s and 30s here. They are both consenting adults in main continuity that can do as they please here. You simply cannot say anything. No arguement can be supported now because now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

There was no point in hate the age gap really in the first place since time was always gonna heal it anyway???

But part of me kind of understands hating it if you experience fandom through twitter which is not a fandom app at all. Damijon stans are annoying and gross on twitter, I get it but not everyone is inherently horrible for obvious reasons.

[btr-rewatch]

hii, you mentioned you were around during the fandom's heyday, i was wondering if you had any favorite fics from back in the day you'd like to share? <3

Hello! Yes, BTR was actually my official "introduction" to online fandom when I was younger :) I spent so much time here on tumblr and fanfiction.net, which was a lot of fun because the fandom was at its biggest and most active.

Good timing with this ask, because I was actually thinking about making a post with some of the fics that were popular (or that I personally enjoyed) back when the show was on. I still have them bookmarked on my old laptop! I'll select a handful and put them under a read more.

Quick disclaimer that I cannot attest for the quality of any of these fics now. I haven't revisited most of these since I originally read them, though the main details have cemented themselves in my brain on account of my past self having read them over and over and over. Still, I don't know if my older, adult self would find them any good in regards to writing quality or the actual content.

• Ok. So, I have to start out by mentioning Laura (known as Miss Fenway), who I wrote briefly about in my BTF Fandom Lore post. When I tell you that she was the "Queen" of the fandom for the years the show ran, I'm not kidding. Everybody knew her. She churned out fanfics like it was her job. She was responsible for a lot of the headcanons that ended up being adopted by the rest of the fandom. And she wrote "Little Hollow," the 55-chapter, 160,000-word fic that had a profound effect on the fandom. Basic premise is: Logan gets cancer, and from there, everything spirals into tragedy and heartbreak. She then wrote a fic based off an alternate ending to "Little Hollow" called "Three" that absolutely destroyed my younger self when I first read it. Like. It was just too much for me.

Back in the day, Logan was the character who was tormented the most by fic writers, and nobody tormented him quite like Miss Fenway. In some of her other fics, he loses an arm in a shark attack, becomes a drug addict, gets kidnapped, is in a car accident that leaves him brain-damaged, is in a hockey accident that leaves him with amnesia, and so on.

Personally, I was partial to "All These Lives" & its sequel "September." To THIS DAY, I cannot hear either of those Chris Daughtry songs without thinking of those fics.

• If you're into AUs, "Mania" was hands-down one of my favorite BTR fics (maybe even one of my favorite fics period). It's like...an edgier version of the boys? They're a gang of sorts, formed out of necessity in order to keep their neighborhood safe from a rival gang. They carry weapons, get into fist-fights daily, and will go to the ends of the Earth to keep Katie safe. Listen. It sounds off the rails, but read it. Trust me. Even now, years later, this fic occasionally pops into my head out of nowhere because I loved it so much.

• Fics that focused on the guys as little kids were very hit or miss (and sometimes could be weird), but I've got to include two of my favorites, "The Petting Zoo" and "Trouble." They both capture the personalities of the boys so well, and I have to imagine this is a lot what they were like as kids. Chaos all the time. Idk, I thought both of these were so funny. Worth a read, in my opinion.

• Alrighty, last fic on this list is a doozy. It's called "Another Reason." This was my absolute favorite BTR fic, and it was one that I read and literally needed several days to digest because it was such an emotional ride. This is a DARK ONE, guys. It's gritty and depressing and hard to read, to the point I only ever read it once because I was never quite ready to return to it. Kendall is kidnapped and tortured for days by someone associated with Hawk (I think??) so it def treads into AU territory because it's nowhere near the lighthearted, goofy feel of the showverse rivalry between Hawk and Rocque Records. Feeling like the police aren't doing all they can to find Kendall, the remaining three boys steal Mrs. Knight's car and take off in search of Kendall.

Like I said, I haven't reread it because it was a tough read, but I remember it being well-written and rambling at length about it to a family member.

And that's where I'll leave it for now! If anyone checks any of these out, I'd love to hear thoughts (my ask box is always open). I also welcome your own fic suggestions, since I really haven't ventured back into the BTR fanfic world yet. Also, thanks to everyone who read the fic I posted the other day!

[ridiasfangirlings]

After so many years in the K Fandom I still can't understand with absolute certainty which one of the boys does Aya actually like: Saruhiko or Misaki? She "acts in love" around Misaki and hugs and flirts with him etc yet she wants Saruhiko to notice her and pines for HIS attention (I know there's also the "rival" thing mixed in cuz she wants to be recognized as being better than him) but she actually kind of seems more in love with him and is instead jealous of Misaki because he gets all of Saruhiko's attention. Because, logically speaking, if she likes Misaki yet he keeps spending all his time with Saru, she should be jealous of Saruhiko cuz he's taking Misaki away from her and also because he thinks that Saru is the amazing one and not her, yet it seems to be the other way around lol. Can you please shed some clarity on the matter here, I just can't come up with a conclusion on my own....

Oh she’s definitely interested in Fushimi, I think even Yata knows that by their last meeting. Aya I think is supposed to be something of a parallel for Fushimi, that the way she reacts to him mirrors the way Fushimi will later act towards Yata — in particular that scene at Niki’s funeral, where she says that if Fushimi and Yata join Homra while Aya is still climbing the ranks of jungle then eventually she’ll become his enemy “because you aren’t looking at Aya.” Yata also talks to her about this in the rain after middle school graduation, how she needs to be more honest with Fushimi because that’s what he’ll react to, the way she’s acting is just pushing him away more. Afterward Aya is clearly upset and again it’s not because she’s lost time with Yata, it’s because she had so much time with Fushimi and yet Yata’s the only one Fushimi is looking at. It’s not until her defeat at the end of the novel that she actually manages to say the words she’s been swallowing down, that she does think Fushimi is amazing and basically admitting that she did want his attention all this time. 

As far as her ‘crush’ on Yata goes, that seems to be again her way of getting Fushimi’s attention rather than any actual interest in Yata. She clearly is aware that Fushimi and Yata hang out together and I think her plan was probably something along the lines of ‘stealing’ Yata away so that Fushimi would look at her. It’s particularly noticeable in the way she initially interacts with Yata — one of Aya’s traits is that she puts on a certain mask in front of others, where she talks in a cutesy way, and that’s the way she’s acting when she sends Yata the love letter and when she first interacts with him. But as soon as Fushimi shows up she gets much more serious and sharp, which is pretty clearly closer to the ‘real’ Aya (and she does stop using the cutesy persona in front Yata as the novel goes on, presumably because she’s really dropped all pretense of being interested in him). She insults Yata in front of Fushimi as well, complaining that his quality goes down when he’s with Yata, which I think isn’t really something she’d do if she was romantically interested in Yata at all. The part that actually I find amusing is I do think Yata is aware she has no interest in him — again that scene in the rain — but Fushimi does seem to be taking her at face value, presumably because if it’s not said clearly to him there’s no way he’d assume anyone else finds him amazing. Aya meanwhile pretends to have interest in Yata while really having no idea what Fushimi sees in him, even after Fushimi tells her right out ‘when have you ever looked at me with shining eyes and called me amazing.’

[ooh-dream]

2 and 29 for the ask game?

2 - What’s your favourite c!Dream duo?

Honestly it’s a tie between Rivals duo and Dreambur for very different and very specific reasons.

Rivals is just a superior duo on all fronts, well rounded and perfect in every interaction they had. Dream didn’t always play the straight man in their dynamic, they can very comfortably switch roles and no quality or enjoyment is lost in that interaction. It also allows the audience to see this different side to their characters. In most of Dream’s other duos he plays a very stoic and mysterious straight man. Of course he goofs around but as the series stretched on you saw that less and that circle shrank. Techno humanized c!Dream in a way. He became less scary to dedicated Techno fans and more just an eccentric kid putting on a tough guy routine.

Dreambur? In the same way Awesamdream is just so fascinating and fucked up there’s just layers and layers of a dynamic that most of the fandom has barely scratched the surface on. The original— and greatest— version of tntduo that honestly deserves more love. The current version of tntduo will never be them; the absolute servers of cunt.

29 - Which emotion do you think rules c!Dream the most?

Fear.

Always has been….

He’s always been this scared kid. He lashes out because if you make yourself look big and scary then the you will be left alone. But c!Dream doesn’t want to be alone, he’s always thrived on being with the people loves. With them he’s always been their protector, their mediator. But that role becomes obsolete as the server grows and here comes this fear that they will no longer need him. Well he does everything in his power to keep being this protector and he gains the revive book to mitigate the threat of death being permanent. His fears begin to lead to this very prominent paranoia we see from him. He’s scared of his friends getting hurt so he pushes them away. He builds an entire prison because he’s paranoid that someone would also have this key to immortality. He asks Punz to distance himself from Dream to keep his only ally safe.

I hope this is a coherent explanation, i wrote this over the course of a few hours so I apologize if it’s confusing.

[unknown-lifeform]

Please… please I would love to hear about your ygo gx thoughts bc I’ve missed hearing about that show…

GX was so good so fucking good, it's my favorite out of the ygo spinoffs that I've watched (5d's and ArcV), it's got so many good characters and it even has a good and satisfying ending, I'm about to be so incoherent in these ramblings

Judai is a great character, he's not my favorite character out of the show but I still love him. Good boy who was so hopeful and friendly (to hide all the trauma) and then ended up having more horrific trauma and having to relearn how to be hopeful and friendly (but in a more genuine way, not simply repressing things as he used to). 10/10 would hug

With my fave being Yubel which you might guess. They were the og problematic fave. I remember being 10 and watching this dragon ruining things for everyone else like hm. I think this may awake a lot of things in me. And I watched the dub as a kid, where they are depicted as a woman, then I found out they are genderqueer in the original version and I was like even more in love. They just have all the things I love. Queer. Dramatic. Obsessive evil bastard. Mental health issue. Dragon.

And there's so many other quality characters. Steve Irwin with a whole crocodile and a magic eye whose powers are never actually elaborated upon at any point. Burned out former straight A student who did what everyone in academia eventually wishes aka become a BDSM emo and start electrocuting people. A dude who is also a dinosaur through a plot twist even Jurassic Park would never dream of. This show was throwing all the wildest concepts at us and it was fucking beautiful

But like. The thing is. Yes the character concepts were wild. Yes you had to employ a lot of suspension of disbelief at times even for a ygo show. But the character development was also so so good? And not just for the main character and maybe one or two other guys, but so many got their development! Manjoume, Shou and Kaiser, Asuka, they all got their season four spotlight to see their new goals, and even side characters like O'Brian got their small moments. Seeing them all go their ways was so beautiful

Ships are also damn good. Judai/Yubel/Johan polycule is very good. Also I can't get over the fact that this gay throuple is technically kind of canon in a very fucked up way. Most of the couples ygo wants you to ship are the hint hint nudge nudge flavor of straight shonen couples that never gets too explicit, but then GX season 3 gives you love triangle between two guys and one's guy genderqueer jealous ex who is also a dragon. Insane

Other good ships: Judai/Manjoume (hell yeah rivals), Edo/Kaiser (hell YEAH rivals), O'Brian/Jim (hunk boyfriends), Jim/Kenzan (fossil boyfriends), actually can we go for the ultimate muscle and ship O'Brian/Jim/Kenzan? But yes lots of shipping potential

Anyways it's kind of annoying there isn't a lot for GX on ao3, or at least there wasn't last I checked. There is so much fic potential. Maybe ffnet might have more, it usually does for old fandoms, but ffnet's interface frustrates me. Plus the fact that GX was kind of badly received, what with being the first spinoff, might have just cut out the number of fanworks even later on

It really is a pity tho that GX was unpopular at first. It's a really good series, it's almost a bit too goofy at first but the change in tone in later seasons is great, plus fitting too considering that it is a kind of coming age thing, all these high schoolers starting out full of hope and naivety and then getting trauma for it. The fact that it's also the only spinoff that has strong ties to DM gives it so much potential. I mean, does Manjoume's family have any particular ties to Kaiba corp? Which and how many of the GX kids would one day meet Yugi, or the rest of the DM gang? What if Judai on his travels ends up meeting people like the Ishtars? For that matter, did the Ishtars know about the multiple dimensions or the Supreme King? Because if anyone from DM was going to be aware of all the things we discover in GX, it would have been them

What if Seto Kaiba and Hell Kaiser got in a fist fight what then

I just love GX so much

[newspropaganda]

What is your take on DSOD and how why did it suck so much?

Do you think 4KIDS didn't dub GX and 5d's because of reasons that aren't lawsuits or bad rattins?

Grammer Nazi Police when? LOL XD

Nostalgia Bait Gone Wrong!

This movie was made to cash in on my childhood, and it failed miserably since I outgrew Duel Monsters years ago.Today I decided to review a movie that I've had a visual loathing problem with since its inception back in 2016. I need to go into more depth because I can't simply ignore it.I have finally decided to review Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions and its mixed reception at the box office. There's a lot to talk about with this movie, and I hope I can cover it all since MyAnimeList has a limit on the amount of text and characters I can use.I am also going to explain two major topics. One is about production problems and nepotism, and the other is about reception and box office gross.

Oh god, this movie is going to suck, isn't it? Oh, wait. It is!

In The End It has to be this way: To me, Dark Side of Dimensions will always be the movie that killed my interest in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime, despite it being the third movie primarily focused on Duel Monsters. Let's delve into a bit of history regarding the Yu-Gi-Oh! movies. Firstly, there was the Toei Yu-Gi-Oh! movie from the late 90s, which was never released on DVD or Blu-ray, either because it was non-canon to the story or simply never considered canon. It's never been explained why it wasn't released on DVD. Then, in the early 2000s, we got the first movie for the Gallop Yu-Gi-Oh! series, Pyramid of Light, which received mixed reception. In its defense, it was created to rival Pokémon movies, but unfortunately, it didn't succeed. This led to the fandom's first uproar, with some blaming Takahashi for it. However, Takahashi wasn't responsible for it; it was actually 4KIDS who commissioned it from Japan. It's surprising that people are still misinformed about this in 2024. Next, we had Bonds Beyond Time, which was the only good movie in my opinion. And then, we have this disaster I'm reviewing.

Two Birds and One Stone Troupe: Now, let's delve into two topics I want to cover simultaneously: Animation and Directing. I'm going to be quite salty about this one. You see, one of my pet peeves is the apparent nepotism and the overemphasis on pretty colors and stereotyping in this movie, which I strongly oppose. This isn't me being biased or offering subjective criticism; I detest the prioritization of 'pretty colors' over substance. In today's media landscape, there's a tendency to mock older shows for not being 'flashy action,' 'self-inserted,' or 'well-made.' People often jump on the bandwagon and promote fake agendas like 'nepotism,' which is another problem I need to address. You cannot judge a movie solely based on animation. This isn't just the recurring issue with My Hero Academia and its animation; it's a problem I like to call the Yugioh Zexal fiasco.Animation production is expensive and often costs way too much. Despite how much money a show or movie makes, its value is ultimately determined by its reception at the box office. Personally, I disliked My Hero Academia because its cinematic animation received more positive reviews than its main series did. It felt like MHA was using the movies as a platform to showcase better fights because the main series itself seemed lazy and uninteresting. So, what does this have to do with the review? Well, people tend to be aggressive towards the media and often blame anime studios for being outdated or lazy. Studio Gallop was never a mainstream studio nor was it financially stable. The Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and movies had above-average production quality before the Zexal era, but then it shifted towards flashy visuals and over-the-top animation, which I found to be a mishap of nonsense. In fact, this movie is why I've disliked its production since 2014 because Konami seemed to be on a death wish to produce another movie that would likely result in financial losses. The movie was primarily focused on impressing the audience, trying to position itself as a 'savior,' but it ultimately failed miserably since people could see the excessive cost of production. The biggest problem with the movie lies in its direction, which was mediocre and poorly choreographed. To make matters worse, it was helmed by the same director I loathe, Satoshi Kuwabara. His tendency for poorly paced animation hiccups makes him a prime example of how not to hire a good director. Kuwabara comes off as lazy and immature in his approach to production. However, Yu-Gi-Oh! fans seem to get upset when his work is criticized, even though it's riddled with flaws. People often only point out issues with localization, blaming the wrong sources. But in reality, the direction of the movie was mediocre at best. He was responsible for the previous screw-up known as Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal and its mixed reception in the West due to the disaster of the anime. He was in charge of that series from day one. What I found particularly strange is that he never gave interviews or tried to explain what was even happening in the show. He appeared mostly lazy and inconsistent, in my opinion.

Nepotism Is as it's peak: This section is about Takahashi, who didn't understand his own logic in the first place. While people defended the movie for its flashy animation and nostalgia bait, Takahashi received universal criticism because he is solely at fault for this movie's failure. In the 2010s, people didn't blame him enough for Zexal, but he was blamed for this movie being a total disaster. It focused on stereotypes, dehumanizing the first Yu-Gi-Oh! show by portraying the characters as nothing more than jerks, and in the process, proving the critics right. In fact, this movie catered to those wanting another political card game war, leading to many people being divided due to his ego once again being involved.

Nepotism characterized the movie, with character assassination and story points being dropped in favor of it being a love letter to Yu-Gi-Oh! Season 6 that never happened. This whole movie is just Pyramid of Light recreated with dumb animation borrowed from Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc-V's production, solely to improve the movie and divide the fans once again. He tried to cover the movie's tracks under the rug because he couldn't take the fact that he knew personally if he stole animation or writing budgets from another ongoing Yu-Gi-Oh! project, it would lead to fandom wars.

Many Yu-Gi-Oh! fans know that he screwed up big time and never apologized for the movie's faults. People are split because of Takahashi's opinions and his ego regarding how Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal turned out to be a disaster, as he was involved in that series but left at some point to start early production on Dark Side of Dimensions. Many fans say that Takahashi wasn't very involved with the series, but for reasons he doesn't want to take part in a show. The reason for this is that Takahashi has an ego that lets him anger the fandom because the story wasn't in favor of anything but solely overpowering the show's credibility and creating a dumpster fire, just like how Zexal became that way.In short, he is the reason why Yu-Gi-Oh! is doomed. He can't seem to improve the story and let it progress, as his original anime, Duel Monsters, was never fully adapted. The manga was left with plot holes and a lack of depth due to arcs being cut too soon. In short, Yu-Gi-Oh! was doomed because any show past 5D's became unlikable and disrespected. This man wanted to push an agenda, much like how Zexal was supposed to be Duel Monsters 2.0.

We hated ARC-V for this? That brings me to the production itself, which was undermined by his lackeys and others who tried to make this movie happen. The movie was made sometime between 2014 and 2016, and it's largely at fault for stealing the budget from shows like Arc-V. I'm not one to just jump on the bandwagon and start supporting a movie because someone told me to. There is no movie in the whole universe I have ever been hyped about just because many people tell me to support its production rather than focusing on the actual story and characters.Studio Gallop was never a mainstream studio like Studio Mappa or Studio Bones. Gallop was a studio meant to handle shows made for children, not mainstream abominations that performed terribly at the box office. These movies were universally panned because their stories were either handled poorly in the manga or never completed. The studio often misled their fandom, promising that the movies would be gold standards, but this was a lie. The movies were more meant to be tie-ins rather than delivering what the fandom demanded.

The Box Office Disaster The movie was a box office disaster, failing to recoup its production costs and falling short of expectations. Despite the hype and nostalgia surrounding the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, The Dark Side of Dimensions couldn't draw in enough viewers to be profitable. This was partly due to the overly ambitious budget that prioritized flashy animation over a coherent and engaging story. Fans were left disappointed, and critics panned the movie for its lack of depth and substance, leading to its poor performance at the box office.

The Duels The duels, which should have been the highlight of the movie, were also a letdown. They were poorly choreographed and lacked the strategic depth that fans loved in the original series. Instead of thrilling, intellectually stimulating matches, the duels in The Dark Side of Dimensions felt rushed and overly reliant on flashy visuals. This focus on style over substance left many fans feeling cheated. The duels failed to capture the essence of what made Yu-Gi-Oh! great in the first place, ultimately contributing to the overall disappointment with the movie.

Overall The movie is just nostalgia bait 101. You can't tell me that many people have a bias for it just because of the animation and pretty colors. In fact, people hated this movie because it was made with money taken from another project, which left their fandom unhappy. If you tell me that I'm being negative because I prefer 5D's, which was universally better than this movie, it's only because you refused to watch 5D's. I'm starting to believe that Konami never planned for this movie; it was a last-second attempt to make money.

I give the the movie a 2/10

Question 2:

The lack of dubs for 5D's and GX is both the fault of 4Kids. The way it was handled years ago reflects how today’s society is afraid to speak the truth about it. I believe it’s all American bullshit politics. There is a reason why i prefer subs since we never got neither fully released on DVD.

[skykashi]

@mystery-hood the first screenshot was from a very well animated scene, I have more screenshots from other well animated scenes as well as high quality frames from the manga too.. but I didn't even make this post to say Gai is flat in the first place nor I was ever one who liked to do this certain type of posts but I had to show just how unfair this fandom always is being to Kakashi, just like I explain here

If you think that both of them have great bodies then I personally thank you for not being part of the biased side of the fandom, they are the ones this post is talking about not the good kind of fans who don't feel the need to downplay other characters just because they are more popular than their favorites, also there was never even one scene neither in the anime nor in the manga showing Gai being more muscular than Kakashi, every single scene they were both in, standing side by side, they always always had the same exact built, both in the anime and the manga, Gai in canon never had more mascular body than Kakashi, those 2 are really rivals through and through even when Gai surpassed Kakashi in strength by opening the 8th gate, just few moments later Kakashi quickly cought up to him once more when he got DMS and both powers were temporary and they can never use them again, they truly are eternal rivals... And btw it's 11 not 15 and that still proves nothing, my friend who's around the same height as me is skinner than me even tho she's 10k heavier than me, some people really do have heavier bones but both of their canon designs are clearly showing that they both have the same built, even their height, Gai is only one inch taller than Kakashi which literally makes no apparent difference at all, yet the fandom always draws Gai twice as big as Kakashi, they always claim that Gai has a great butt while Kakashi is so flat, they always claim that Gai is so muscler while Kakashi is so skinny, they always claim that Gai is so strong while Kakashi is so weak, Gai is so hot and cool while Kakashi is so pathetic, they even claim that Gai smells amazing while Kakashi smells like wet dogs... Etc and I'm so freggin' tired of their bs. Imo both of them are amazing but recently trashing Kakashi has become a trend, some ppl really think insulting and degrading Kakashi makes them look so cool, and that's just unfair!.

Check this 👇 out

Now, these are the same ppl who keep swearing of Gai's huge thicc juicy ass, you'd see them going on and on about how enormous Gai's butt is that you can hear his butt cheeks clapping from 100 Miles away as he's doing his daily laps around the village, while they keep talking about Kakashi's butt being as flat as a board. Now let's see the picture of Kakashi they "saw" and still deemed as flat/assless, next to Gai's huge cakes they always talk about

I have one thing to say to you, fandom...

I don't really mind ppl giving their favorite characters more than they canonically have, my issue here is that they give all the other characters more while downplaying Kakashi, I just wish that ppl would be more fair to Kakashi and treat him the same way they treat the other characters, it's just so unfair.

[botwstoriesandsuch]

Actually wait though, cause quick rant as a writing nerd, I think that last ask has finally made my brain click into what I really dislike about the Age of Calamity DLC as a whole. The main problem I had with that flashback scene was that it was not a developed “romantic situation” but rather, it’s just the bare bones of a cliche. In fact, I would argue that there is not a single scene, or “situation” happening in any of the cut-scenes in Age of Calamity: Guardian of Remembrance, rather every “scene” only centers around trope.

See when you say “situation,” what you actual mean is “trope,” and tropes, inherently aren’t bad. A trope, down to its most basic fundamentals, is just a set of circumstances. A chosen one, love at first sight, an impossible riddle--or perhaps if I’m better to cater to the audience, other examples would be rivals to lovers, “there was only one bed,” soulmates and soul marks, and of course, “guy saving the girl from danger and then they fall in love.”  Trope is set-up, trope is circumstance, trope is used by every writer, director, and storyteller on the planet and it’s impossible to avoid or ignore it. And the reason why trope isn’t bad, is because trope is the building blocks of a story or scene that is meant to be developed upon.

And that brings me to what a cliche is, which is, essentially, a trope that is never developed upon, never expanded upon. Cliche is when you are given a familiar set of circumstances, and you never do anything with it. Or at the very least, you never do anything unique with it.

So a hero pulling out a sword to become something greater is a trope, something you see across many works of fiction. But Link pulling out the Master Sword is not a cliche, because the bare bones of that trope are built over with interesting and unique lore, story, and character.

So long story short: Trope = pretty good Cliche = bad

Now, can you guess which of these two techniques the Age of Calamity likes to use more?

Cute kid is saved at the last moment by their personal hero Evil cult wants to raise a dark lord and harbor destruction Mysterious traveler from the future warns the protagonist of something

Wow Nintendo! Those are some neat tropes you’ve got there! I am so glad that you uniquely developed every single one them into something interesting and fulfilling--

Oh WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAITTTTT...

And this isn’t to say that none of the plot lines in hwaoc were developed. There IS absolutely some amazing content developed with characters like Zelda and Mipha, or Revali and Sidon, which are achieved through means of both trope set up and subtext. However, I argue that the content that the game is actually providing you is far less than you think. Subtext and “unspoken narratives” certainly are valid literary techniques, but such things can often be mistaken for something else, something that’s just a fabrication of fandom. See, subtext is not fan service.

Fan service is making your fans happy. Sounds innocent on its surface, I mean who wouldn’t want to make their consumers happy? However the majority of the time (at least speaking on the perspective as a someone who studies storytelling) a lot of the time, the existence of fan service comes at the detriment of the fans, because instead of including fan service in a story for fun, fan service often replaces story.

Quick example: Literally any recent 21st century animated TV show that has had ships. Writers plan their thing, fandom is like “actually don’t do that thing, do the thing WE want.” Writers comply. The show’s quality crashes. *cough* Star vs the forces of evil I’m looking at you *cough*

Age of Calamity is guilty of the practice. Baby Sidon, Tulin, Terrako--Cute little shits that exist to distract you from the bad writing. Sooga, Urbosa, Zelda on a motorcycle--badass character moments that distract you from the fact that there are barely any character arcs in this game. You CANNOT argue to me that their cutscenes were included to further enhance the story, because nothing else happened, other than these ideas existing.

Hell, even the fun gameplay technically exists to distract you from it, but I suppose at that point it’s no longer a criticism, but rather an acknowledgement of the development process and the developers’ priorities. Nonetheless, the elements of fanservice in Age of Calamity, especially highlighted in its DLCs, far outweighs its actual substance, and the developers are able to get away with it, because our happiness as fans blind us to its valid faults, our excitement fills in the blanks and holes, and tricks us into thinking there is more than actually is.

“Ohhhh but Kip!! Not every element of a story has to have a specific, thoroughly planned purpose. Sometimes things can just exist for fuuun!” Yes, this is true. But it’s still important to remember that this mindset is a slippery slope, because the more you become compliant in it, the more incentive corporations have to get lazier and lazier with their products. Take all of Marvel Studios for example. So just remember that you can still enjoy and have fun with a game, while still demanding better, and criticizing its faults

So getting back on track, the fact remains that a large, dare I say majority, of the story presented in the Age of Calamity DLC (or arguably the whole game, that’s up to opinion) is made up of an *idea* of development, rather than actual development. AKA underdevloped tropes. AKA cliche.

The *idea* of the main antagonist being part of a mysterious cult is cool. The *idea* of a guardian eggbot time traveling around and altering events is intriguing. The IDEA of a guardsman devoting their life to repaying a debt to the kindness of their master Does Have Potential! It is not inherently bad, it is not inherently homophobic, it is not, inherently, a determent to the story.

But when you leave the trope, the setup, the idea as it is, and do nothing more to expanded upon it, and do nothing more than acknowledge its existence, it leads me to the conclusion that either you are a lazy writer, or you had an ulterior motive, that your goal was not to tell a unique story. Perhaps, it is a combination of both.

And it PHYSICALLY PAINS ME to see shit like this happen, because this is the same company that made one of the most subtext filled, well written,anti-cliche open world RPGs in existence! Shit like this does not happen per a lack of skill. It’s flat out inexcusable.

And this is also a good moment to remind you all to NOT be like me. Do NOT pre-order Triple A games. Let games come out, and assess if the content is quality, or worth your while. You wanna do that because it gives YOU more power. Preordering from large companies simply gives them the power to give whatever shit on a stick they want to you, while hiding behind the veil of brand loyalty.

Anyhow, long story short, the REAL tragedy of the game is still Sooga being white.

[enduracarrotchips]

YouTuber AU

Hello welcome to Dating Scandal but with Twitter Involved (nightmare)

A little exposition here: 

Link, Zelda, Sidon, Revali, and Riju are the most popular group of youtubers on the internet and have a huge fanbase that likes to theorize, draw fanart, and write fanfiction about them. Disclaimer, I don’t actually interact with real-person fandoms myself lol there’s just too much potential for drama and misunderstandings & they’re always bound to end in a dumpster fire but that is sort of what this au is about so.

Impa, Mipha, Daruk, and Urbosa are family friends that appear in a lot of their videos/streams. 

(This is an art blog I swear)

enter vidcon 20XX

Link: 

blows stuff up/sets stuff on fire with a side of cooking vids and gaming

most are filmed outside, he does those challenges where you try to cook stuff with limited ingredients/materials

has the largest fanbase of all of them, but not the most…intimidating.

does a lot of collab videos, mostly with Impa, Daruk, and Riju because they have similar interests/channels, but Zelda appears in his videos and is seen filming and the stans read too far into it

simps. i’m pointing at you.

Most popular videos are “shield surfing on rock!—how I broke my leg” “can Daruk eat Impa’s motorcycle?” and “how to inhale ranch dressing.”

Twitter handle is @ arsonistslullabye because he’s a hozier fan

45m subs

Zelda:

theories, analyses, conspiracies, and the occasional e x p e r i m e n t

she once got link to eat a frog for 50 bucks.

most people argue that she’s better than more popular YouTubers because she actually has quality content to give to the world and she has a lot of defensive supporters

She used to get a lot of hate before Urbosa spoke up about it and scared the bejeezus out of everyone

has an actual posting schedule

“Happy Sunday everyone, it’s Zelda Hyrule and today we will be talking about cryptozoology and why blupees exist, you cowards.”

Twitter handle is @ zeldaofhyrule and she is pan. just so you know. One of those calm extroverts that mystify me to this day.

18m subs

Sidon:

fashion/life hacks. Like gourmet troom troom but if they were real people.

Has the 2nd largest fanbase

most of them are girls

Sidon has a boyfriend though, which he told everyone at VidCon a few years ago

cue the drama and shipping and the entire fandom trying to figure out who the boyfriend is. A well known reddit thread emerged that presented the common guesses being Link, Sidon, and Zelda.

“But it can’t be Zelda, Sidon’s gay.”

“I’m not in the fandom but I thought Zelda was a boy??”

“Did you just say Sidon? Is that a typo? Are you saying that Sidon’s dating himself?”

Sidon x Sidon became a fandom joke.

Don’t look at me I’m just setting up all the worldbuilding. every fandom has their weird dark sides and Sidon x Sidon is the Linkcest of the Sidon YT fandom.

Mystery BF is actually Bazz, a pretty inconspicuous guy who appeared in a few of his videos. This was confirmed a year ago, but everyone still ships him with other YouTubers because they’re convinced he was lying to throw them off his scent. He really can’t catch a break and this is why you should not ship real people.

Twitter handle is @ officialprincesidon

says “beguiling” a lot

21m subs ᕙ( ͡❛ ▿ ͡❛)ᕗ

Mipha:

Sidon’s sister, hasn’t posted a single video but just has the channel for show because she appears in so many of Sidon’s videos as a model for his makeup tutorials and whatnot

has 328k for that. Everyone loves her, she’s great. @ mimipha

Revali:

Link’s sworn rival

Link thinks they’re friends

He kept popping up in link’s Twitter threads and making snarky comments until zelda called him out for not even following link (so why was he stalking his acc) which kept the Twitter drama to a minimum

Revali was the catalyst of a few popular memes and that’s where most of his subs come from.

drags link into a few challenges that always get a ton of views because of how competitive they get

“ITS JUST ASININE” is a running joke that everyone tries to get him to say. His @ is itsjustasinine as well

Urbosa is the only person who can win an argument with him

5m subs and growing rapidly. newer to youtube than everyone else.

Impa:

Doesn’t have a channel she’s just a mutual friend of Mipha, Zelda, and Link

Rides a motorcycle, so she is used in a few of Link’s videos.

@ ihaveamotorcycle because she thinks having a motorcycle is a personality trait. the most unruly on Twitter when it comes to replying to fan’s stuff, leaking upcoming videos and generally causing chaos.

Mipha’s girlfriend. That’s how she met Zelda and Link.

Urbosa:

Is actually a model, but she has a ton of YouTuber friends because she’s known Zelda since birth.

when she entered the youtube community she didn’t realize she would be adopting like 15 children

5m subs. her videos are professional & related to her modelling career. @ urbosasfury

I feel like she would do unboxing vids. I’m not sure what she’s unboxing.

Daruk

Just a friend of Link’s, fun guy. yells a lot. once ate a rock and had no reaction.

people are scared of him for that reason

Riju:

yoga & gymnastics & “ha look at how flexible I am its eAsY” videos

you know the type

she also does reactions and is sponsored by save the sand seals charities which she is very enthusiastic about. She’s also Urbosa’s niece and the only minor in the gang (15). I like to think that the champions YT community is actually not creepy so everyone respects her a ton

doesn’t post frequently, she mostly appears in Link’s videos to jump out of airplanes or whatever. And sometimes Zelda’s if she’s interested in the topic. 500k subs, but she’s always really popular when she appears in Link’s videos.

VidCon:

In the months leading up to VidCon, some fans on the internet made a few discoveries: first of all, that the inside of Link’s house is painted green. This is a big deal because all of his videos are filmed outside either in his backyard or on trips that he and the brosquad go on to do…whatever bros do. explosions. idk. The point is he had some announcement about VidCon and filmed it inside. Only the wall and a potted plant were shown.

However, the colour was similar to the the shade of Zelda’s living room. Fans dug through years and years of old videos and found a clip of Zelda walking through a hallway, where there was an open door and a glimpse of a houseplant.

There were 2 types of responses to the theory:

“They could just be roommates guys calm down”

“and they were ROOMMATES?”

others pointed out that Link could just not have a house and had to crash in Zelda’s

Some guy on reddit claimed he had a botany degree and declared that the houseplants in the clips were not of the same genus. Normal people pointed out that the plant would have grown 4 years between the clips and would look considerably different.

#Zelink trended on twitter for a while and people posted other old clips from both of their channels and the frog video blew up again

Impa retweeted a post tagged as #zelink with “rofl” and later publicly apologized for causing confusion.

Fans noticed that in the “can a motorcycle drive over my arm” (it was clickbait he’s fine) episode 2 years ago, Link was eating out of a paper lunch bag with his name written on it in handwriting that a few people claimed to look like Zelda’s, leading people to believe that she had packed him a lunch.

However, this theory was shot down with the counterargument that Zelda can’t cook. although. i mean how much skill do you need to make a sandwich.

No one knows what tumblr is doing at this time

Zelda wore a scarf in her “Save the Sand Seals” video that matched identically to the scarf Link wore when he travelled to Hebra to film a shield surfing video, but it’s been debated wether it’s actually the same scarf or not.

Neither Zelda nor Link has spoken up about the theories, and besides Impa’s one slip on twitter, neither has any of their friends. Zelda received a lot of backlash for the assumption that she was dating Link because he has a lot of delusional fans that didn’t want her to “steal their man” or whatever the hell that type of fan would get mad about

Oh yea and bolson & karson run a zelink fanpage on twitter sorry I forgot about that

after that whole mess, everyone was even more anticipant of VidCon in the hopes that some of their questions would be answered.

The whole batch went to VidCon this year: Link, Impa, Daruk, and Riju are a gang while Sidon and Mipha go together and Zelda & Revali each go separately. Urbosa is there for supervision moral support

Zelda has always been much better at dodging questions that she doesn’t want to answer than anyone else, so her Q&A went without a hitch. When asked to confirm the rumours she said “which one?” and then moved on to the next question (without actually confirming any rumours).

Link is generally a more awkward person but eventually said that he had filmed the video in Zelda’s house because it was nicer and didn’t realize it would cause such an uproar. Fans were disappointed, but Bolson claimed he saw Link and Zelda exiting the hotel elevator on the same floor after Link’s Q&A session. No one believed him.

Fans went back to theorizing over who Link, Zelda, and Sidon were all dating, because apparently they can’t just be dating unknown people and have to be with other YouTubers

Sidon and Bazz got engaged about a week after VidCon, making at least 4 preteen girls cry

actually try 4 million

Sidon x Sidon made a brief comeback but Sidon spoke up about his fandom for the first time ever on twitter and told everyone that no, he was not dating himself. eventually, everyone settled down and accepted that none of them were in a relationship save for a few loud fans.

Link and Zelda still got the occasional “when will you tell us who you’re dating?” comment but most of them were joking and the people who still hardcore shipped them were generally frowned upon. Zelda’s popularity went up after VidCon and she regained the 200k subscribers she’d lost after the first theory dropped.

Two months after VidCon, Link posted a video titled “Zelda and I’s House Tour!” and gave around 45 million people a heart attack

as revealed in the video, they had actually been dating since they were 16 and everyone’s just a fool.

the potted plant is named Hestu.

[rawmeknockout]

who's your fave character to write for? 👀👀👀👀

my fave character to write for changes all the time i used to do a TON of swerve and have a lot of swerve ideas and im not really 'burnt out' on him per se but ive explored his character so much in terms of romance/smut that i feel im rehashing the same ideas and i think a fresh perspective would help

im a sucker for rodimus i have a soft side for arrogant people irl and crush hard on anyone who is just way too confident but i love how he is soft and really cares about people too bc i can relate to that i have so much love for rodimus even if he is a shallow bastard and makes poor decisions for his own ego, i feel like theres a lot of room for improvement there esp if he had someone as his opposite (cough rival cough) to push on him and force him to think outside his own worldview im a big dork for rivals to lovers tho its like enemies to lovers but enemies generally start off VERY antagonistic and rivals are generally antagonistic yes but have room for an underlying respect and admiration and wiggle room to how they could interact as friends

someone i never get requests for but love immensely with my whole heart is bumblebee all bumblebees (i even have a soft spot for bayverse but i will NEVER touch those movies i dont want them within the bi county area stay away from me) i have loved bee since i was a kid bc the first transformers i watched was tfa and i loved characters like jack spicer and bee and other such overconfident jerks with a soft side as ive explored other series that love for bee has only grown i love him when hes a bold leader who wants to earn respect but treats even his enemies with kindness and i love him when he's a scout who gets into trouble bc hes just too gentle and weak i have so many thoughts about bumblebee i love him lots i could go on and on about the different bees (and their relationships with starscream ill die on this hill) hes always such a gentle good guy and deserves the whole world i dont care if transformers is overrun with bumblebee content i want MORE

i also love to write cheetor but strictly beast wars and cyberverse cheetor i feel only terror with beast machines cheetor im a big sucker for anything that has a likeness to cats and the fact that his alt mode is a cheetah i think is so cool im a cat lady through and through i love cat mugs and posters and slippers so ofc one of my fave robots has to be the cat one which also brings up ravage whom i adore in a different way than cheetor they are complete opposites in many regards but they are both loyal which is a quality i treasure in any character or person i think the most interesting thing about ravages story (particularly idw here) is that he is essentially a man with a body that makes others see him as a creature rather than a person i like that the writers took the time to think about all the altmodes the decepticons have and how their original functions made them sympathetic to megatrons cause

i also like writing for rumble and frenzy (all the cassetticons really) although i have a hard time bc two of my friends are big cassette fans and i want to portray them in a way that they would when it comes to transformers or any fandom imma be honest and say,,,,,,,,, ive hardly looked at the source material i havent read much and i havent watched much i saw big sexy robots and i was hooked and i love the story but,,,,,,,,,,, theres no way my attention span would allow me to read a full range of comics man i dont have that in me

other than that i dont want to say that im clinical in how i approach characters but im technical and i know them in a general sense and expand upon them in a way i feel a real person with specific personality traits would act i want them to feel more in depth than just a one or two dimensional character i want to write them in various situations bc deep down we all are just,,,,,, love creatures we all love and we all love to be loved

[its-ashley-95baybe]

I can't understand why Tomdayas aren't seeing the writing on the wall here. Zendaya had the perfect out with break up rumors swirling and people clowning Tom for looking raggedy and everyone calling them out for not being serious or active on SM for each other anymore, etc. But then what happened? This magical one-day interaction purposely in public trying to get spotted yet again and somehow Z can’t stay for the holiday weekend when she clearly wasn’t busy? Then on the day of she has this bday post to rival his from last year — same Spidey set pics, same PR undertones. She didn't even say “I love you, thank you for the value you bring to my life, thank you for being my partner” y’know real couple stuff. And he replies with emojis, saving all his actual words and efforts for other people? Sorry not sorry Tomdaya stans but Tom and Zendaya are playing all of y’all if you’re happy with that bare minimum high school childish surface level bullshit. They did what they needed to do to throw you guys off the scent after almost 6 weeks of no legit sightings or interactions by relying on what they always have — being out in public and social media activity. The teams know what you stans think matters so it saves Tom and Z from ever having to be real adults in a real relationship. They follow the pipeline of stan culture and stick to it exclusively and somehow their own fandom never call them out for not acting like any young couple that has ever existed in the history of Hollywood. They don’t kiss or show any PDA besides weird hand placement that only Wattpad readers care about, they don’t try to stay private even though that’s what they tried to claim was their preference, they don’t actually spend quality time with each other even when they can, always settling for these parades around public arenas looking for who will see them together. And who was everyone talking about on Tom’s birthday? Zendaya. Whose post has passed Tom’s post last year in IG likes? Zendaya’s. None of the diehard stans ever wonder why all this exposure never really benefits Tom that much. He’s mentioned as the boyfriend, the accessory, the afterthought. This was the most PR thing her team has done so far and they did it for a reason, never revealing too much, never actually speaking openly about what her and Tom are actually like as a couple, but somehow still wanting attention for their relationship regardless. Almost like it’s in some kind of contract. What a weird coincidence.

…

[transhawks]

I got into dabi*hawks because of the potential of rivals/enemies-to-lovers and I thought they could have really interesting interactions and fics involving them could delve into some really interesting areas about morality and the grey areas (and the fact that they’re basically foils, a son of a villain who became a hero blinded to certain shortcomings and the son of a hero who became a villain because that was all he saw, yet they share similarities in their fucked up childhoods and the fact they’re basically going further down ‘bad’ paths in the current chapters, the fact they’re on different sides but in another life in another context in different events they may have been able to relate to each other..)..all to say I basically just started liking it because the idea of them interacting and their dynamic was interesting especially if they’re forced to consider the other’s views and work together (hawks in general I’m a big fan of vigilante or villain fics where he becomes more against how fucked hero society is and decides to take an alternate path to fix it) and I think hawks deciding to take more of the villains’ side is a more interesting plot line than if he ultimately dies trying to make up for his mistakes a hero, but..I feel like with how popular dabi*hawks got people think people only ship it because it’s hot or whatever and the view of it has significantly tipped down to where people get made fun of. (even though I feel hero/villain pairings are popular for a lot of these reasons in basically any media.) I have no idea where I was going with this when I started typing but I wanted to express my appreciation for finding a blog that can both like the content while neither pretending canon events didn’t happen/justifying bad things either one did nor acting like dabi*hawks fans are rabid yaoi fans who “ignore canon for their hot ship” or support abuse (I’ve never understood that one, they’re on opposite sides in canon and of course are going to fight, it’s not an interpersonal relationship in canon, so that’s basically saying all enemies to lovers is abuse regardless of context for no real reason, which is like of insulting as an abuse survivor)

One, the immense popularity, and subsequent lack of quality of shipping (as with everything, not everything made is good, and a lot of it isn't meant to be 'good' as you or I define it) does in fact give people the wrong perception or a very skewed one.

Additionally, some Dabihawks fans are in a bit of a tight spot where very hero-approving Hawks fans, the type who think he did nothing wrong, think the pairing is just a bunch of denial of little substance, meanwhile the other of the spectrum, a lot of hard-core villain stans hate it due to Hawks not living up to a lot of the 'promise' much of us saw early on.

And you talk about that promise; hit it dead on. Hawks's narrative is fascinating due to a lot of the could haves. It's why he is so richly paralleling most of the League. It's why his character is so goddamn complex.

Dabihawks started as a joke you know, I remember it. I was still new in the fandom and skipping ahead because I hate the overhaul arc when Hawks debuted. And at that point I hadn't really focused too much on the villains besides liking Dabi for being very obviously connected to Shouto, but Mirshroom kind of drew a "what if hawks and dabi went to hero school together and knew each other" thing even before we knew Hawks was a spy, and we all started calling it hotwings and thinking of the irony since Hawks was a walking icarus parallel to us...

And then.. The narrative happened.

Suddenly we were embroiled in a spy plot, and an intriguing story of a boy forced to become a hero who looked up to Endeavor, and Endeavor's likely son, born to be a hero but couldn't be one, so he became a villain. And Hawks had to work with him, pretend to be a villain.

It was beautiful.

It is beautiful.

It's gotten so much better: Hawks, the son of a villain, saved by Enji. Dabi, who has ruined Hawks's life, and yet, managed to free his shackles by destroying the cage, and yet Hawks will go back and defend the man he feels created him.

Even people who hate the pairing, and there are many good reasons I can list of stuff I don't care for in portrayals, might find it hard to deny; the setup reads like a Greek tragedy.

It reads like an epic romance novel.

And no one says those end happily, in fact, the appeal is, that they usually don't but so much of what affects us in the end is the knowledge it could have.

The clashing of two different ideologies, two perceptions of wrong and right, of justice.. One boy who was 'saved', one who wasn't.

There's so much richness that can be mined in the dynamic.

And, I guess, many are let down by canon not delivering. First off, clearly whatever this stuff between Hawks and Dabi is, it's still happening. There's unanswered questions and Horikoshi did not choose to end 299 and 300 in the exact same panel for both of them for nothing.

Whatever Hawks's fate is, it's tied to Dabi. It's tied to the Todoroki storyline. We don't know what will happen. There's been so many fics early on of us predicting one will try to kill the other - usually Dabi, and it's happened, but it might happen in reverse. That Hawks might try and kill Dabi.

The more optimistic among us, like me, can hope that Hawks somehow redeems himself by returning to his real origins - not of loving Endeavor, but being the boy who saved people he didn't know. By actually beinf a hero and saving someone who by all accounts shouldn't be saved, even if it means his life.

Even this far, through this much, can't you see how there's still so much ifs and can happens?

That's the beauty of it.

This is not a post, I think, saying other pairings are worse, or lack these qualities. Because that isn't true. But it is a post explaining why, even in the swamp of awful out of character portrayals, or people undervaluing the importance of the League, or ignorant inconvenient truths about Hawks's motivations and character, there is still so much promise and beauty in dabihawks. It's why I still ship it, and why I likely will until the end.

It's not happy. It's not neat. Like most enemies to lovers ships, there is messiness. But canon has provided a framework full of potential and exploration. And that's why it's still here as a ship.

Because we see the beauty in it.