#the stupid ship wars

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

I often try to remind myself to interact more with the fandom, that I should make more friends and have a better sense of community. Look for more people, read more fanfics, broaden my horizons.

And then when I do that-

. . .

Let's say I am once again reminded of why I am so fucking insular in the first place.

[licorishh]

double ?? upload ???? yeaaaahh i've gotten FASTERRrr for whatever that's worth so complementary blyla because guess what i miss them too (nobody was surprised by that)

[loser-onl1ne]

Ngl I forgot I had tumbler, have some murder drones art

[xwonderlandresidentx]

I feel like I've been seeing a lot more posts about how both the Kat//ng and Zutara fandoms should stop fighting and tolerate each other more, and while I understand, and to an extent, agree with the sentiment, it bothers me a little because these posts tend to make it out like both fandoms are equally as toxic, when in my experience, that simply isn't true.

I am a multishipper, and even though I mostly just participate in the fandoms for my absolute favorites, I still enjoy lots of different ships, including ships that "contradict" each other.

In AtLA, even though Zutara is my favorite now, I also used to ship Kat//ng. Kat//ng used to be my favorite, and only ship for the series that I actively engaged with. I saw the appeal of Zutara (and others), but for a long time my opinion on it was "it's not canon, so why bother?" and I mostly just ignored it.

But one of the biggest reason I stopped enjoying interacting with the KA side of the fandom was because I saw a vastly disproportionate amount of other KA shippers going out of their way to harass Zutara shippers. And I don't mean simply talking badly about the ship itself, or the characters involved, but personal attacks against the real life people who ship Zutara.

Have I seen Zutara shippers harass Kat//ngers? Yes, of course. But not nearly as much as the other way around. Literally not even half as much. And not just here on Tumblr, but Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Deviantart. All across the internet, I saw KA shippers constantly badmouthing Zutara and Zutara shippers, even in the comments of Kat//ng art and fics, completely unprompted.

It bummed me out, and while it isn't the reason I stopped liking the ship itself, it did make me feel uncomfortable interacting with it's fandom. Kat//ng shippers are, ironically, a big part of the reason I started actively shipping Zutara. Because after seeing the way they went on about it and it's fandom, I thought "Surely, Zutara and the people who like it can't be that bad." So I took a deeper look at the ship and it's fandom, and.... I was right. They weren't as bad as other Kat//ngers had told me they were. Not even close.

[meowmeowneon-arts]

ฮิฮิ (After thinking about Sith!Boba; how Boba join dark side. I just found my new ship.)

[plasticbabyart]

Idiot boy failure and his lesbian girl best friend, who’s gonna tell him ?

[ivvmell]

for codywanweek i missed(again)

[mesapies]

One day, they'll be free from the constant mischaracterization from the atla fandom

[scullycockstrap]

Every time I see people complaining about buddie appearing on social networks' posts about the pride month, I get a bit more crazy!

They don't have a canon romantic relationship, fine! But they clearly have a queer platonic relationship going on!

They are canonically partners inside and outside work. They canonically co-parent a child. The show made sure to make clear that inside the 118 family, the Diaz-Buckley is a unit on itself.

Is that not queer enough for you?

[aithusarosekiller]

A year or two after the war ends, James and Lily make the joint decision to split up. To the general public, who only knew them as the perfect little family that somehow survived Voldemort's attack, it's a shock, but to their close friends it was an obvious decision. They had come right out of school and into a war, they hadn't had any time to explore themselves or the world before they were married and then parents and then locked up under threat of death. They'd been rushed so quickly through their lives that they felt they hadn't really had the chance to live them. So they decided to separate and remain friends and if they came back to each other, so be it, if they didn't, that was okay too.

It was strange at first, not being constantly around each other after spending so much time in hiding together, but they made it past the first couple of weeks they settled into it. Lily moves up north to stay with some of her friends and starts working at a little apothecary Dorcas owns. At first she tells herself that she is mostly focused on enjoying life as a single woman and providing Harry with ad many good opportunities as she can, but when she starts to get closer to Dorcas, she decides not to fight it. She'd wanted to live her life and make new memories so who was she to fight against the feelings she had for her old friend? They begin to go on dates, but take it slowly this time, savouring every little moment. They have no need to rush anymore. A few months in, Dorcas starts to buy her flowers once a week; she leaves them on the doorstep and Lily has to try to contain her blush every time she had Harry and he asks about them.

When they make it official, she panics a little. She doesn't want to make the same mistakes she did before, but they talk it through and Dorcas understands and they agree that they aren't rushing at all. They are happy and Lily gets to live out the rest of her life with the freedom and care she didn't get in her early adulthood.

James stays closer to the city. He finds it much more difficult to move away and start over so he chooses to distract himself and help the ministry clear up the aftermath of the war. He works to help track down potential death eaters so they can face trial and along the way ends up working closely to none other than Regulus Black- unknown war hero who was now secretly giving the names of all the death eaters he remembered in exchange for...nothing? James is intrigued and chooses to invite him out for drinks to get to know more. He finds Regulus truly fascinating and after that night, realises that he had finally forgotten about Lily and the war for more than an hour. He walks Regulus back to his house and they awkwardly agree to meet up again. When Lily next comes down to drop Harry off, he tells her, and she says she is happy for him. She tells him about Dorcas and he is shocked when he feels more happy for her than disappointed that she had moved on.

They continue to meet and keep dodging around each other for an embarrassingly long time until regulus caves and kisses him at one of their meet-ups. James freaks out and struggles to understand what he should do or how he should feel but ultimately decides that this is what he wants and they begin to see each other. They move considerably faster than Lily and Dorcas but that's okay, James likes it that way. He never did think he'd be able to experience that kind of sweet, awkward love again after the war had interrupted it the first time but he did. And now he had a beautiful husband, well-loved son, and a life full of hope, along with a life-long bond with Lily and Dorcas. And really, they couldn't be any happier.

[graycious-tea]

When I tell you I am this close 🤏🏻 to dm-ing Lou to tell him we love and adore him and what he’s doing with Tommy because of all the hate that cutie patootie of a man is getting…

[hercarisntyours]

imagine like wayyy into the future of tfone verse post-war an optimus and megatron version of hamilton gets made

[littencloud9]

bsd fandom has always mischaracterised kunikida to hell and back but the fact that i am seeing SO MUCH hate for his character right after his 'death' is insane

[priceofreedom]

why are Aerith, Tifa and Zack ALWAYS the target in this freaking fandom

[deadlypincers]

People fighting whether if XiaoJin or HwoaJin is better are so funny, because the obvious and the only correct answer is that they're a polycule. 🧡❤️💙

[theyreunderadumpster]

The Clouis vs Violentine fights absolutely tickle me as an elder of sorts in fandom culture at this point, because it warms my geriatric heart that kids are still fighting over absolutely silly stuff like this in the year of our lord 2024. Meanwhile I'm sitting over here while my hip hurts like "isn't it great they wrote in two equally amazing options for our girl?" 💖