#there's some character interpretations I don't share there. like i said i don't think either of them would cry that easily

[carlyraejepsans]

saw your most recent post about really good fics that contain uncomfortable kinks and i immediately thought "ah, biscia must be reading the mpreg soriel fic" and almost left a reply talking about it but i stopped myself because i realized that would be an insane assumption to make. needless to say i felt so vindicated when i saw you link it in an earlier post.

like. HELLO?

HELLO???????

[prince-liest]

Saw a post recently that rhetorically asked why authors and show writers leaving character sexuality up to interpretation is disappointing when fifteen years ago getting a statement that things were up to interpretation (as opposed to "Definitely NOT gay, you freaks!") was a blessing, and I make a point of never discoursing on the bird app, but wanted to share some thoughts on the subject here - particularly because Alastor is kind of a hot topic on this subject and I think he actually makes for a great example for my thoughts on this.

Honestly, as someone who did live through the "if you think my characters are gay then you're stupid and should die" era, I think it left me with the perspective that even if there is canon sexuality, then no matter what it is, you're free to then do whatever you want in fandom. People might call you a dick for it if you go about it in certain ways, but you're free to do it.

That said... that's not really what wanting canon confirmation is about. It's about having canon representation, especially for identities that we often don't see representation of. For example: Alastor being aromantic is "up for interpretation," and that specifically feels bad when it's explicitly been framed that way as a cop out to appease shippers (per Viv), especially when in canon you can see he's intended to be aroace based off of how Rosie talks about him.

Yes, things are better now than they were 15 years ago... but standards are higher now, too!

And in particular I think that while in 2008 or so, "It's up to interpretation!" basically meant "Yeah, they might be gay but I can't say it," nowadays the meaning has shifted. I see a lot of people chiming into any mention of aroace Alastor with this attitude of "Um, actually, he's NOT aromantic because it wasn't confirmed by Viv (even though he wasn't confirmed to NOT be aro either)," rather than the spirit of "Oh, yeah, he might be aro, that's a valid interpretation!" It actually feels very similar to seeing people go "Well, X is OBVIOUSLY straight (the default) because he wasn't confirmed to like men!"

...in 2008, haha.

Anyway, fandom always feels to me like a 'do whatever you want' zone, but I think just based off of the sheer volume and depth of genuine and heartfelt reactions people have had to Alastor as a character and his portrayal as aroace... having canon representation and seeing yourself in media you enjoy matters a great deal to many people.

I had a really emotional moment when I read my preorder of House of Hades from the Percy Jackson series back in middle school and realized that Nico di Angelo was an actual gay character in an actual real, physical book that I was holding in my hands, not "just" a headcanon from my nebulously safe online fandom spaces, for the first time ever. Similarly, people have been headcanoning various characters as ace for a long, long time, but to me it's never had the same punch to it as it being official when it comes to those kinds of feelings re: representation.

So leaving that kind of thing "up to interpretation" specifically as an alternative to providing representation to a group of people who rarely sees it is disappointing, but it's not for shipping reasons.

[roboj0e]

Wade would bully Peter bc someone said he would and wrote it happening and bc y'all are so boring and annoying. Fanfiction isn't about what's canon or strictly in character thats why they're called transformative works. I think y'alls weird obsession with what's cannon while also trying to heavily police what and how ppl make fiction is honestly been the death of fandom and creativity.

There hasn't been a large scale cross over in fandom in years that either wasn't completely ironic or torn down by bullies that it fizzled out bc y'all don't know how to have fun. Even that recent debate over how sans would react to his brother death is further proof of y'all's lack of understanding of interpretation and fan works. Fanwork are supposed to exist in the reality of the fiction of the person who wrote it. NOT what IS the right interpretation bc there are NO right interpretation except for what is made canon which can be anything bc WE aren't the creators.

Who cares what happens in the comics. The comic themselves don't care what happens in other comic runs unless it's specifically meant to be a spin off/continuation.

Wade is SUPPOSED to be a morally ambiguous character. I know y'all have washed him of all the ambiguity bc ppl have told you that how ur supposed to approach fiction and y'all can not perceive a protag who might not be the best person who ur also NOT supposed to hate (god forbid a protag not have Jesus adjacent morality) but thats what he is. He'll do whatever anyone wrote him doing bc he's not real and also anything thats morally ambiguous or toxic bc that's one of his character traits and what was supposed to set him apparent from other heros he's not even a hero he's an antihero. I can not believe y'all are moralizing something as tame as bullying. Bullies making up with their victims happens in DISNEY movies now y'all tryna make that into some problematic take. OMG. And this is from someone who WAS bullied briefly until I learned how to fight and stand up for myself.

Thinking that someone who romanticizes something morally wrong couldn't have possibly been through that experience is the direct antithesis of fiction. It also makes no sense. Plenty of ppl write from experience but also sometimes turning it into a story in which they control how they interact with a bully does A LOT FOR REGAIN CONTROL OF THOSE NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES. STOP TRYING TO SUS OUT WHO HAS TRAUMA OR NOT. also STOP thinking that you are an authority of certain traumatic experiences you aren't every experiences are very VERY personal and the portrayal of those experiences should have NOTHING to do with yours bc there is NO way to encapsulate all lived experiences. And even if someone hasn't been bullied who cares again decenter yourself from a fictional scenario that should in now way be a representation of you bc u are not the center of the universe.

(THIS SECTION UNDERNEATH IS MY HEAD CANON U DONT HAVE TO TELL ME U DONT LIKE AGE GAPS IDC)

Secondly wade only wouldnt bully Peter TO ME bc I'm not a teenager in highschool like some of y'all and highschool fics don't interest me and wade to me shouldne even be in highschool and always be the much older one in the dynamic. They shouldnt even be near the same age for me. But whatever floats ur boat. You can do whatever you wan't but when y'all make these long posts telling OTHER ppl what they can and can't do OR how you think YOUR interpretation of the character is the most right your crossing a line frl.

Edit: I read both Deadpool and spiderman comics btw plus the very wonderful spiderman/Deadpool run. GASP I know someone who likes the source material but doesn't adhere strictly to it bc I actually have an imagination and like to have fun instead of kissing marvels feet and remaining in a narrow interpretation of a character. A rare breed I guess.

Edit edit: I also think alot of y'all have a very romcom take on spideypool. And thats definitely fine love my fair share of fluff. But I have a much more complicated take on them. Again I think an age gap compliments these complications. It adds to an imbalanced perspective of both of them towards each other. I'm also very uninterested in a spideypool that grow healthy together or peter "fixing" wade. I want them to overcomplicate their relationship but for it to also be a healthy balance of comedic and fun and hot monkey sex that keeps them interested in a less than perfect relationship. A sorta push and pull from both sides.

[utilitycaster]

Do you think this new option could lead to a break up in the party and some of the characters leaving the group? Because I can't see everyone agreeing that this is the best solution, but I also think Ashton is stubborn enough to refuse to consider anything else

This is going to be a very long answer for what is a pretty short question that could be answered in one sentence, and here's why.

I've gotten a lot of questions in the past week or so that are specifically asking me what I think the future will be - for campaign 3, and for Critical Role generally. And I've gotten a little frustrated by them, which is somewhat uncharacteristic of me because I love having opinions, but the fact is, I don't know and I don't even have strong opinions. So I dug into that, and why people might be asking these things more than usual, and I really think it's because the narrative of this campaign is so constantly under threat of derailment or going in the same old circles that pretty much anyone in the fandom with any sense of narrative structure, and what makes for a well-crafted story is like "so...what's happening." Which is translating as coming to me, a person who is very good at sounding confident and knowledgeable.

I do not fucking know. I share this frustration, and I cannot be the person to clear it up. i am not even the best at narrative or analysis in this fandom; as I pretty frequently state I took the hard STEM option with regards to my education so while I read a lot and have a pretty good sense for the lay person, there are actual like, trained and published writers. For what it's worth several of them are my mutuals and while I'm not putting the rest of this post on them I do feel safe saying they agree that the lack of narrative direction is at the heart of most people's frustrations with this campaign, even if they enjoy the characters. But getting back to the point, I do not know.

Here's where I stand on the actual plot before I go back to the bigger picture. I think that unless Bells Hells decide on their course of action pretty quickly, no ending will really feel satisfying due to that sense of directionlessness - and there are arguments for Bells Hells to take either the Arch Heart or the Accord's plan, though I think the Accord's is far superior, but they need to pick one.

Because of the ongoing issues with this party lacking perspectives that tied in well to this story and having to hinge everything on either one singular interpretation of one single instance in extraordinary circumstances (eg: Dorian), or stuff that feels, as I've said before, retconned, I have generally been extremely amenable to Bells Hells losing party members either through a split or through character deaths. This is not out of any sort of vindictiveness or dislike of characters, but just a hope that now that they know the vibe, the cast will make a character who has a perspective that is relevant to the story (which, FCG is not an ideal example because they happened to be the character who had perhaps best grown from their original concept to fit into the themes of this campaign, but Braius obviously is a very strong character informed by the story as well). I also think that a lot of the indecisiveness is part of the characters' various natures and that will also be a factor, especially since a new character can be both decisive, have a clear point of view, and be a lot more comfortable pissing off the rest of the party to assert it. So: if Bells Hells as they currently stand can decide what to do quickly, no need to break up! But if they can't, yeah, it would be to their and the story's benefit to do so. That's before we get into, for example, the sacrifice required from specifically Imogen or Fearne for the Arch Heart's plan; Ashton is not the one who has to risk their own autonomy for the rest of eternity. They might die in battle, but they will not become a husk housing an ancient hunger. I think the people who might have to do so get to decide.

Now: it may seem counterintuitive to demand a clear direction from a TTRPG, when part of the appeal is that we don't know how it will end, but the thing is, with the past campaigns, we did not know if the party would succeed but we knew that they wanted to do. Vox Machina could have fallen to Vecna but we always knew they were going to fight Vecna. The Mighty Nein's decisions not to get involved with the war are not indecision but rather a very clear decision (do not get involved). Their later reversal of that decision similarly follows from who they are and the richness of their pasts.

Bells Hells does not have that, and the endless circular conversations are both circular in game and a vicious cycle out of it; because we've always been focused on this plot from very early on and because the characters were not developed as strongly, we have a lot of very indecisive people who are too trapped in this crisis to develop and become decisive. In a way, it feels like Matt's been something like the Arch Heart here: saying "oh, THIS would be interesting, I wonder what will happen" at everything when it's like "ok but consequences are like, important, and maybe you should let things play out. I mean, two cycles isn't great but it is still only two; maybe you should actually let your children/players figure this out, even if it doesn't fit your idea of what should happen, instead of throwing yet another new thing at them."

So: I don't know and I don't have answers about Campaign 3 events at this point because, again, as someone who has a pretty good sense of what makes for a satisfying narrative, it has frequently subverted those requirements (which, to be clear, is bad - it's not genre subversion or a masterful play on expectations, it's subverting actual satisfying narrative beats; as someone said on one of my other posts in not quite so many words, it's like storyline-baiting). I know I tend to present my points with confidence, and I am pretty confident about a lot of things like CR lore and said sense of narrative, but like...maybe this guess on the fandom vibe is incorrect, but I think I'm getting these questions because people are saying "hey, do you know where we're going? I think I am reading this map wrong" to me and I'm here to say "no, you're reading it fine, we've gone off the road and are just kinda crashing through underbrush, and maybe we'll hit another road and continue on that and I can give some insight, but also we might go off a cliff, no way to tell."

[frownyalfred]

Hello, ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ

I was re-reading Eye in the Sky, literally hits me in the gut every time I read it I swear the amount complex emotions and relationships all from an outsider POV it's just, I can't but I digress.

Diana did have this whole speech about wanting Bruce to "come back to them" but it's said outright that she'd be 100% kill him is it weren't for Kal interfering. How much of her speech is true about wanting him scared, or was it all just to try to get sympathy/ confuse Duke or any potential listeners. If Bruce were to "give up" (not that it would happen) would she accept him back into the fold as one of the Leaguers and as Batman?

Also, the meeting where they show off Tim, Jason and Dick very obviously misses Damian, Cass and Steph.

My interpretation of the og Injustice -verse was that Damian joined Superman partly due to him believing that villains should be killed but also partially because Dick's accidental death left a rift between him and Bruce that Damian was too scared to address.

However, Dick is very much Alive and at no point does Bruce ever mention Damian joining the Regime willingly.

Are there any crumbs you'd be willing to share?

I don't think Diana outright wants to kill Bruce, but I'm sure she's happy to make threats and attempts she knows will rattle him. We get Duke's POV for this fic so he takes Bruce and the others at face value when they imply the motivation behind these attempts. I think Bruce deep down knows that Diana wants to spook him, wants to make him change his mind, wants to push him and express her anger and frustration. If she killed him without succeeding in getting him back in the Trinity, it wouldn't be worth it. Right?

If Bruce gave in, yes I think Diana would accept him back. She has strong opinions about right and wrong and having a humbled Bruce would satisfy any remaining anger, I think. She's not vengeful, or not in the way we might predict her to be. I think she told Duke much more of the truth than he realized. It was a highly vulnerable moment for her -- she's tired of this too. She didn't want this either.

The characters who aren't obviously referenced by the fic so far are the ones who managed to escape or evade the Regime in some form. We'll see a few of them next chapter. But they're decentralized and isolated, which felt more like a realistic resistance to me.

Thank you so much for reading!

[island-ofthelost]

My Actual opinion on Five's sexuality

I've gotten into many a fight in my ask box about this, but I don’t think that I've ever shared my opinion in depth, so here I go *mentally prepares for war*

I do not think Five is 100%, completely aroace. For some reason, whenever I say this people take it as me saying that I think he's 100% allo, which has gotten me hate from one side and weird praise from the other for giving them "permission" to sexualize Five.

I find it hard to believe that these supposed members of the ace community (although I doubt all of them are) seem to be allergic to nuance and considering other identities when it comes to headcanoning aroace characters, it isn't all or nothing, so to speak.

That being said, I think Five is gray/demiromantic and asexual. The reason I think this is because Five clearly felt genuine romantic love for Dolores, but I don't think he would feel that way about anyone else, at least not anytime soon, and I don't think sex was ever part of it, he never wanted it to be, and the way his age/body disconnect is it would be weird in any situation, but I don't think he would be interested regardless.

I think a lot of people in the fandom like to headcanon Five as completely aroace because the thing with Dolores "was a trauma response" or "was psychological" or "wasn't really romantic love" and these have some merit because it's obviously open to interpretation, but my qualm is that I think some people don't actually believe this and just say that because the whole situation is yes, frankly, very weird. But I think either way it invalidates the feelings of this character to serve a headcanon.

But what's worse is people ignoring Dolores all together because "it's icky", and don't even bat an eye at Luther and Allison or any of the other wild things with romance going on in this show.

And if anyone thinks that I'm speaking over anybody and this should be within the ace community, I am on both the aromantic and asexual spectrums. I rarely share that on public posts because I haven't found an exact label and I am frankly not the most comfortable with it, so consider this a coming out I guess?

Idk, I hope ya'll enjoyed my yapfest/impromptu essay, and if anyone's interested in me making a longer, more in depth, and well researched essay (mayhaps in video format if I'm able), I'd be down.

(I am also praying to the tumblr gods that I will not wake up with a billion notifications having started a war)

[stellasolaris]

Why Stella should not have been rebranded as the Fairy of the Shining Sun

After nearly a year, I have finally decided to write a second part to my previous post in which I said I was not a fan of the writers rebranding Stella as the Fairy of the Shining Sun.

To start, let's first take a look at her family background. Her parents are the King and Queen of Solaria—the proverbial sun and the moon. It is apparent from their distinct color palettes and the origins of their names that they represent the sun and the moon. Stella, with her original title as the Fairy of the Sun and the Moon, naturally has qualities and powers from both her parents. To take away her moon powers would be a disservice to her character, as it means taking a piece of her identity away.

While I subscribe to the idea of her having access to solar and lunar powers, I don't mind her lunar powers being secondary to her sun powers. Here's why.

Her moon-based spells, which she rarely uses, tend to be more defensive and tamer than her sun-based spells. (3.14, 3.26) For someone like her, who is bold and daring, and prefers offensive tactics over defensive ones, it makes sense that she would lean more toward using her combative solar powers. (1.21) It's what comes naturally to her.

Her relationship with her father, despite the neglectful behavior of both her parents, appears affectionate. (3.19) I like to think her strong connection with her father and home planet is in part why she prefers and is more in tune with using her solar powers than her lunar powers.

There is some debate over whether or not she should have a secondary power, with some suggesting that she would be too powerful if she had two powers. I disagree.

Her powers make narrative sense when you think of them from the standpoint of light rather than separate celestial bodies. In technical terms, moonlight is reflected sunlight. These two are not separate. In a way, her solar and lunar powers are essentially the same, just in different fonts.

It would be logical for her powers to be influenced by the level of light in her surroundings, allowing her to draw either from solar or lunar energy. We already know from canon that she becomes weak and powerless in the absence of sunlight. (2.04) In such situations, her lunar powers could become activated. This limits her abilities and prevents her from becoming too powerful.

Recall that one of the motifs regarding her character development is the use of mirrors. It serves as a symbol of her personal growth and self-awareness, particularly in seasons two and three. In 2.21, she earns a mirror-shaped pendant for being vulnerable and sharing her feelings of loneliness. In 3.04, she breaks her curse by realizing her beauty isn't skin deep. Every time she reflects on her life and grows as a person, there is a reflective item (the lake, the pendant) present. If we consider that the moon reflects the sun and acts like a mirror, we can interpret her mirror-based spells to have an indirect relation to her lunar abilities.

To be fair, her mirror spells could easily have a category of their own as the moon is not exactly like a mirror in its reflectivity power; the moon only reflects about 3–12% of the sunlight, while a mirror typically reflects anything between 70%–99.9%. However, based on the fact that the sun produces its light, whereas the moon and mirror do not, we can conclude that her mirror spells are more likely to fall under the moon category than the sun category.

From a narrative standpoint, it seems the writers had no idea what to do with her lunar side. It's likely why they changed her title and erased almost every trace of her lunar side, including the blue accents in her transformation outfits. It's a shame because there are so many ways they could have explored her moon powers in the later seasons, but no; instead, we get the displeasure of witnessing her turning into a toddler, putting fairy animals in silly costumes, and wearing an atrocious salad dress to the stage for everyone in the audience to mock. Which, for the record, she would absolutely never wear.

[dragonfire2lm]

Elden Ring Headcanon: Messmer Edition

Spoilers below, these headcanons are based on item descriptions, and thanks to some helpful people in the discord I'm in for clarifying some lore that completely flew over my head.

Ok, so, just as a disclaimer: I do not care who you ship Messmer with, or how you view him, the following headcanon is just my interpretation, that does not mean that everyone should share said interpretation. If you do, awesome! if not, just continue on with your day, the following headcanon has no bearing on your enjoyment of the character, the game, or what you do to express your love of Elden Ring.

Messmer seems very aromantic coded to me. He has friends among the knights that serve him, cared about them to the point he listened to them when they wanted knowledge preserved, and mourned the loss of a friend when two of knights rebelled against him because of Messmer's serpentine nature. He also has a lot of love for his family, with how he was an older brother figure to Radahn and had a brotherly bond with Gaius, not to mention how he's turned himself into a symbol of fear and uses his fire (which he has tried to get rid of multiple times) all on his mother's orders.

Yet he has no interest in romantic relationships (R.I.P Rellana), and I just, think it'd be neat if I headcanon him as aromantic (Note: that does not mean he's also asexual, I am specifically focusing on aromanticism here) based on the fact that he cares a lot about his knights and his family, but had no interest in Rellana in a romantic way.

Plus, its all in good fun, and aromantic rep is sorely lacking in media, so what's stopping me from reading certain characters as being aro-coded? Fandom often interpret characters as gay, bi, trans and so on for their headcanons and fanfics, so what does it matter if I pick a character to write as being aromantic?

This is, after all, a hobby, its for fun, and if you personally don't agree with this, that's ok. Whatever ideas you have, and whatever ideas I have can coexist in the same fandom space.

Now, here's a headcanon that's a lot less...controversial.

Messmer sees via his serpents, his remainnig eye, as seen in his phase two transition, is a glass one, a prosthetic eye. He probably can't see out of it. Granted, there is a lot of blodd on his fingers after removing it, so maybe it is a magical functioning eye or something, but it could go either way. But given that when we enter his boss room for the first time, we see one of his snake friends before we see him, so I feel like that opening cutscene hints at the fact that he uses his snakes to see.

I like Messmer, he's very friend-shaped.

I just think he's neat.

Edit: The lengthy disclaimer at the start of this post is just me covering my bases, I've gotten guilt-tripped and generally felt unwelcome in a couple of other fandoms for simply having an aromantic spectrum headcanon, or you know, being an asexual fan of a game and its characters when most of the player base is clearly not asexual. (A different game, not Elden Ring, the elden ring community has been very accepting, but the Doubt Still Remains because of my previous experiences)

Thank you for reading.

[for-a-longlongtime]

JOIN US for the Triple Frontier 5th Anniversary Write-A-Thon!

Hosted by @romanarose and @for-a-longlongtime

Hello everyone!

March 13th 2024 will be the 5 year anniversary of Triple Frontier, a movie that was underrated but very precious to us all. Whether Frankie Fridays rock your world, you're a Benny kinda-person, you've got a thing for Santi, or are counting everything all the time just like Will - there are so many of us.

Charlie Hunnam announced recently that there is potential for a sequel; he is trying to get it in production and has signed on as a producer. Do we want this? HELL. YEAH. Let's be real, we've probably all thought about how that would go. So @romanarose and I wanted to drum up a little extra excitement all over the place and spread some love for this movie that many of us have watched so many times! (Probably every week. I have no shame admitting this.)

Here's what's happening

It's super simple: create a fanfic of Triple Frontier, any way you like and with any characters you want. Most people will be inclined to write a story, but we always greatly welcome other artistic interpretations. We've listed some content rules below just to make sure it's fun and accessible for everybody, so please check it out. This is for both art and fanfiction. We encourage you to utilize Twitter or Instagram if you’d like to share either, and #triplefrontier or #triplefrontier2019 on any site you post on! Even if you don't plan to participate, please feel free to share this (or other) posts.

Please note you do NOT have to write a 'sequel' to TF; any fic with any Triple Frontier character will do, in pretty much any situation. A 500 word ficlet will be awesome, as will a 20K story, a painting or digital art be!

🏳‍🌈 We are highly encouraging LGBT themes and for you to think outside of x f!reader. 🏳‍🌈 

👉 If you are writing reader insert, we strongly encourage you to encompass a broad scope of readers if you aren't going to specify the demographic. 👈 (FYI, @idolatrybarbie made a great, important post about the need of inclusive reader inserts a couple of months ago.)

All fics that fall under the rules are encouraged, so if you write Santiago Garcia x afab!f!reader, that’s great! But we’d like to take this time to encourage gay/bi pairings, trans readers, gender neutral characters or readers, or even trans interpretations of the boys. Branch out!

🚨 When you post, PLEASE tag @triplefrontier-anniversary on Tumblr and we will reblog it there. We also may reblog onto our main. Please follow that page to see what other people are writing! In the tags, please tag it triple frontier write a thon, just to make everything easily found.

If you want to post art that Tumblr doesn’t allow things like nude art, link the content in a Tumblr post, like a Twitter link, and we’ll reblog that!

If you exclusively write on AO3 or Wattpad or other, you can either make a link on a Tumblr post and tag us. Or message @romanarose privately and they’ll get this set up for you so we can reblog.

Triple Frontier Write-A-Thon Rules

We will run from March 1st to March 14th. Fics and art posted before or after will not be counted - we're trying to keep things manageabel!

This is not a dark event, sorry! Some of us enjoy dark content but wanted to keep this particular event mostly non-dark. That being said, we will allow dub con in the context of mild alcohol use, power dynamics etc. Nothing cooercive, anything sexual should be done with consent. Mostly we are looking to avoid non-con/violence. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to reach out to us!

All participants must be 18+, although smut is not required

No incest, including Millercest. No underage content, no grooming, no - do we really need to list it all here? Again, this is not a dark fic thing.

We have the right to exclude any fic that makes us uncomfortable. It’s our event.

However, we will NOT be excluding people for personal biases, unless it encroaches on our boundaries. This event is to promote Triple Frontier, not about us.

LGBTQ+ characters and themes are highly encouraged, not required. Any fandom thrives when it's inclusive, so we want to explicitely welcome and encourage authors to be themselves and write what they want! Or perhaps even try something new, if so far you've only written P boys x f!reader/OFC.

Tom is allowed. We’re not gonna tell you not to include him if that’s what your little heart desires. However, we highly encourage that your work includes at least one of the usual four guys.

(We don't know WHY you would want this but but FINE. If you must...)

We hope everyone has fun and that this will drum up some more Triple Frontier fics! It's just a fun little thing we want to do in order to celebrate all of you as authors, artists and the movie/characters that have made such an impact on many of us.

Once we start reblogging your entries at @triplefrontier-anniversary starting March 1st, remember to reblog and comment to support artists!

Please come to @romanarose or me with any questions!

PS: Just to make sure there's no confusion - this write-a-thon is explicitely about the Triple Frontier characters, so there's no RPF.

[battry-acid]

Hey dude I totally don’t know at all you should totally write a manifesto on trans/intersex wolverine ooooo you wanna write it so bad ooooooo

you tease me, tumblr user that i am definitely not friends with. we both know this is bait i simply cannot help but bite. << if you read this till the end you get a surprise :) >>

i could go on a big long rant and list every single instance in which logan defies gender norms in the comics, but i'm gonna try to be brief this time. my headcanon that logan is trans/intersex is so personal and deeply rooted in my mind that discussing it kinda feels like sharing the secrets of a close friend if that makes sense. like, it's his business, it ain't my right to share that information.

i know there are trans logan truthers out there. i have seen them in the wild. i know there are people who would agree with this headcanon, and i'm sure i'm not the only one who takes trans headcanons super personally as a trans person, projecting your experiences and feelings onto a character you really like. it's the same thing with ol' logan (and kurt is not spared of this treatment either).

with the intersex headcanon, i don't often see those enough (for any character, in any fandom, honestly) especially considering intersex people make up, like, 2% of the entire world population. i know of several canon intersex characters in media, but not headcanons.

the biggest reason many people have the trans logan headcanon is because of his clone x-23/laura having XX chromosomes due to the sample used by dr. kinney having a damaged Y, making her 'female'. this is going off of a ciscentric intersex-exclusionary idea of what biological sex is, though.

i'm still totally down for the base concept of 'laura and logan having different gender identities means that at least one of them is trans since they have basically the same DNA' though, but i think both logan and laura are intersex. i think part of the reason it was so hard to clone wolverine is because of his unique DNA. it isn't contradictory for them to have different gender identities or different biology. i think we should stop looking for a reason to label laura Girl and logan Boy and just accept that they can be neither, both, in and out of the between, anything, it just requires so much less hassle. why is their biology so important anyway? that doesn't change their characters.

there's also just...general biological fuckery happening in the weapon x program as pointed out by 1random-starfish because this is superhero comics we're talking about where they're trying to explain how characters get superpowers. this shit doesn't make biological sense and that's okay. it doesn't need to make sense. transphobes and interphobes are constantly saying that our existences "don't make sense" and why should we ever even slightly cater to their beliefs? we make sense to ourselves and that's all that matters. trans and intersex logan makes sense to me.

another argument brought up in defence of trans logan is the fact that he's a short king. as a short king, i approve of this. but there's little emphasis on the fact that he is naturally extremely hairy, both him and sabretooth are super hairy, like way more so than most other characters (besides the ones that are covered in fur like kurt and hank) and that's pretty significant to me. i'm also hairy as fuck. almost all of my intersex friends are hairy too. obviously how much hair a trans and/or intersex person has will vary, but like i said, this trans/intersex logan headcanon is super personal, so i'm projecting personal attributes onto him, damn it.

as i said in a previous post, though i don't feel it's incredibly important to disclose, logan likely has POTS or CAH or something similar to those conditions. i don't think medicine can or should define what logan is. but just to give a reference for how i interpret his appearance, some of those attributes are similar to the ones logan has in my brain. fat, hairy, short, often experiencing fatigue/vertigo/disturbed sleep/etc (worsened by him having PTSD), adrenal issues (paired with PTSD), breast tissue, facial hair, decreased bone density (which was strengthened by his skeleton being bonded with adamantium), etc. he was also allegedly a very sickly child.

onto how i portray logan in my art. some artists prefer to give him top surgery, not just for the "who cares it's a headcanon i do what i want" reasoning but also because there's evidence that logan could experience a permanent surgery like that if enough effort was put in. i, however, am one of the no-op logan truthers. not only do not all transmasc people get top surgery but it doesn't always feel required due to diversity of body types. it's why there's so many different kinds of top surgery, there's so many different ways a chest can look. i don't always draw logan's chest the same way consistently, and like, who cares. the only reason i bring this up is because i personally will never draw logan with any kind of scars, top surgery or otherwise, because of my understanding of how his healing factor works.

regardless of any reasoning i may have for these headcanons, it's just what i feel is right. i draw stuff how i want to. i think about these characters how i want to. the little version of logan that lives in my brain told me he is trans and intersex so that's how i'm gonna portray him. anyway,

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

Do you feel comfortable with us recommending your blog to others or...?

Because there are blogs dedicated to analyzing homestuck and they are usually very good but the moment they talk about Eridan all the magic disappears and, I just want to know if it is acceptable to recommend you as like, homework i guess (?).

In the style of, if they are going to talk about complex characters then they should do their due research.

It's okay if you're not comfortable with the idea, maybe I shouldn't be that interested either, it just hurts to know that they can do better, and they are not (on the contrary, its just worse).

Unfortunately, not with that attitude!

I actually have a pretty strict rule to never go out into the fandom in search of fights, and to never answer asks asking me what I think about another fandom member's interpretation of canon ("official"/semi-official works like PQ are exempt). This is because, if I go onto some other guy's blog with zero intention to change my opinion, and say "you're wrong," that makes ME the asshole.

Nobody likes it when someone rocks up to the discussion to tell them they're wrong and try to own them with facts and logic. It's actually kind of a dick thing to do! That's why I contain my takes to my own blog, which, thanks to the block button and blacklists, means that nobody has to engage with me if they don't actively want to.

I've had several instances on this blog before of either having to dismount a conversation where neither side will change their mind with "agree to disagree," told people I can't/won't comment on something because I don't engage with the fandom overall, or straight-up blocked people. I do this because I've made the mistake before of trying to be Correct on the Internet, and the truth is it's an unwinnable battle that makes everybody involved look like a clown. At the end of the day, we're all squabbling about what a webcomic "means," and it's impossible to be 100% correct. God knows I've been wrong, sneakily edited posts, and hoped nobody noticed (if you did, thanks for not saying anything).

If you like my posts and agree with my opinions - great! I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't like the ego boost. If you don't, I'm usually willing to hear people out, but I'm pretty egotistical and we'll most likely agree to disagree. I pretty exclusively reserve actual retaliation for people who rock up (especially while hiding behind anon) pretty much just to tell me I'm wrong. Like I said, the person who does that is an asshole! I try not to be that asshole.

If someone's takes are so "bad" to you that you can't stand seeing them, you have the power to banish that person from ever appearing before you again. Block they ass. You literally don't need a reason. But if you want to do the hard, thankless, joyless, unrewarding, and nearly always futile task of changing someone's opinion, then step one is to take a deep breath and trying not to think about it in terms of enemies and allies, right and wrong. This person is another human, just trying to make a living on this shitty earth, talking about this thing you both like. The vibe should be excitement that you can share an insight they haven't considered, not a tribal monkey instinct to hit another monkey with a big bone club.

If these blogs already do a lot of Homestuck analyzing, chances are, they're receptive to Homestuck. Instead of using me (some rando on the internet) as a source, you should use the comic itself. Lucky for you that I cite my sources, or at least make it easy to look up the parts of the comic I'm talking about. It's a little more legwork than just linking an essay, but you're trying to perform the nearly impossible task of changing someone's mind, so put some elbow grease into it.

And if that doesn't work, welp. Agree to disagree! Haha.

[epiphainie]

I completely agree with you in that there are many bad faith interpretations of tommy and buck and tommy’s relationship. I don’t know if this one I’m about to share would necessarily be a bad faith interpretation but I’d like your take on it. In the scene where buck comes out to eddie, eddie says to buck “this changes nothing between us” and buck responds with something along the lines of “uh good, that’s a relief”. I’ve seen a lot of people interpret buck’s facial expressions as not showing just relief but relief mixed disappointment because a part of buck wanted things to change between them, in the romantic sense, he just doesn’t realize it. I do agree that buck’s expression as he says the words is interesting but I don’t personally think it has anything to do with him harbouring romantic feelings for eddie. for me it felt like one of those moments where you dread the reaction for so long, that when you finally face the thing and open up, even if the other person’s reaction is positive, it takes a minute for you to really internalise it and let yourself believe it.

Another moment that people often talk about from this scene is reaction to buck saying he can’t stop thinking about tommy. People often say eddie’s facial expression shows some sort of disappointment but again, I don’t know if that’s it? again, it is an interesting expression so I get why people would pause and focus for a minute but to me, it reads as eddie searching for a moment to give his honest advice to buck in the scenario.

Anyway, I’d love your thoughts on those particular moments and how you see them. Again, I’m not saying that the interpretations people are making of that scene in relation to buddie are necessarily in bad faith. I know it’s fun to analyze and interpret scenes in ways that you enjoy and I’d never want people to stop doing that. I just feel like Oliver and Tim have been very clear in that they do not want to tell a story where a guy comes out and is in love with his best friend and if buck was truly disappointed in hearing eddie say nothing’s going to change between them post buck’s coming out, that would be a quite bold contradiction.

Hi anon!

I'm not sure if you actually meant to send this to me because I'm kind of the exact opposite of a person who engages in the practice of reverse-engineering actors' faces to find deep secret meanings that doesn't actually exist in the script. I think it's a slippery slop of a fan practice where if you go "haha he looks jealous here" and want to make it gay in your fantasy world and are capable of compartmentalizing that from the actual text, it's great! If you look at it like it's subtext that is meant to one day come to surface, as some sort of proof that this is not the actual story, you're either too deep in your world that you treat these characters like they have agencies and thoughts and feelings and are not, yknow, fictional - or that actors are making the conscious choice to layer their performances with breadcrumbs for a plot that doesn't exist at the time.

I've seen all these arguments with almost every scene this season. Eddie's face when Tommy enters the bachelor party. Buck's face when Bobby says Tommy is good for him. Bobby's face when he says Tommy is good for Buck. Eddie's smile when they enter the hospital room. Most of these are insignificant and the others have in-text explanation (Yeah, Bobby smiles weirdly in that scene. Guess what, he's kind of planning to kill himself). And like I said, if people want to read these in a pro-Buddie sense and go do fandom stuff with it, that's great. But we all know this fandom is taken over by the question of "will Buck and Eddie happen?" so everyone who's not even doing this in bad faith (I don't think all do) are looking at it in "does this support canon romantic Buddie?" lenses. So much of shipping Buddie is about speculating for the next episode, next season, next whatever that I think it's so easy to find yourself on that slippery slop where you fit every shot, face, editing choice to your interpretation. There's also the sunk cost fallacy at play here - once you do it for so long, it's hard to give up on the belief that it'll happen.

I think both Oliver and Ryan great actors - and that scene is one of my favorites in the season - but no, I don't think there's more to their faces than what they're given to play. Which is as all of them mentioned a billion times, a scene of a guy nervously coming out as queer to his best friend and receiving support. If I'm wrong and the rest of this fandom is right and the production/writers/showrunners are actually fully married to the idea of canon romantic Buddie but The Powers That Be are keeping gay Eddie in the closet as if he's a real person and they're the evil step-mother, and come S10 Buck realizes he's been in love with his bff all along, then yeah in-text, that would recontextualize all their performances. It still wouldn't change what the writers' intention has been with the text as it exists today or be proof that Oliver and Ryan are making acting choices for a hypothetical future SL.

[dundeey-art]

Had no thoughts about prowl. the majority of the fandom thinks he's an asshole and they either hate him for it or love him for it.

So I read the entire wreckers saga for Verity initially, but you know what? Prowl really stood out to me. I wanted to see more of him, so I read the issues he was in and I truly don't understand where the whole "prowl is an asshole" came from, yes he does some bad stuff (so does everyone else) but i interpreted this as a means to an end.. i think he's always thinking about the future and the end of the war, and his actions reflect that. I'm pretty sure he even mentioned that he "has to make tough decisions for a better tomorrow" but don't quote me on that

I think trying to moralize anyone in the IDW comics is a bad idea LOL, love them as they are (￣ー￣)ｂ

I find it really interesting how prowl is like.. public enemy #1 in the fandom when there are others who are worse and get so much love. LIKE RODIMUS OH MY GOD DO NOT EVEN GET ME STARTED. He annoyed me so much while reading MTMTE. Seriously, the way everyone babygirl-ifies him and never talks about his wrongs, you'd swear rodimus is a pretty decent guy. He's infuriating, painfully immature, and egotistical, and those traits get people killed. Like at some point, he ignores advice from ultra magnus because he's petty, and it ends up a disaster... I'm not even gonna touch on his horrible friendship with drift.

I dunno how this turned into a rodimus rant (；ω；) BUT ANYWAY!! prowl is pretty incredible, and i didn't know for such a long time because of the fandom's mischaracterization of him.

— dream (*＾3＾)/～☆

holy fucking based...

YOU HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD!!!

indeed, if you just read the material, you'll see that prowl is wildly misinterpreted and exaggerated by the fandom. personally i like rodimus, but what you said is true. almost every character in IDW has committed terrible crimes, but those get excused or overlooked way more than prowl's do. prowl supposedly being the biggest war criminal in the story is a joke that gets boring really quickly.

its most likely about more than just his actions, though. i think prowl's personality puts people off. like hes a bit too unfriendly, not cute or quirky enough. but i like prowl, he's one of the few i can actually tolerate. but i guess thats just not the popular opinion. really, though, i think people that genuinely think prowl is an asshole are annoying. we probably wouldnt get along irl.

personality aside, i genuinely think prowl is an incredibly admirable character. he's like the anti-hero to me. it's clearly shown in his actions and motivations. far from the antagonist that some people claim he is.

im so glad you read it for yourself to come to your own conclusion and gained all this insight! thank you for sharing!!

[mistchievous]

Hey all!

If you're seeing this post, it's likely you saw another post of mine yesterday regarding @pururing and their art.

It's led to a lot of discussion around art and perception and culture. This artist is Korean and is portraying a Korean character. They're pulling from their experiences as best they can in doing so. You can read here about how their history and culture affects their art and the choices they make.

The character in question is played by real people, however, with Chinese parents, and many people took issue with her skin being portrayed in the art as even lighter than Maddie's and approached them to discuss it. Some of that can be seen publicly on their blog. Some of it took place in private DMs.

When discussing it, things were said and misinterpreted as this artist saying that not only is Jee lighter than her parents, but she's going to get lighter as she gets older. You can see an entire discussion about that here by reading this thread.

I want to publicly apologize to that artist for this. We should have given them more grace and asked for clarification instead of taking it in the worst way possible and then sharing that interpretation. I was wrong.

I don't think any common ground is going to be reached between either side regarding perception and how Jee should be colored, however. And I discuss that a bit more here.

I advise everyone who saw yesterday's post or is seeing today's to make their own minds up with all of the information available to you.

And for the love of everything, no matter what decision you make, do NOT attack this artist! Leave them alone!

If you choose to disengage, do so quietly with the block button or with filters, and if you choose not to, that's entirely up to you.

[sweatreleaseofdeaths]

I never liked some aspects of SNK's ending since it came out back in 2021. Not because I thought it was bad or because I thought it wasn't well made, but because it felt forced. 

The sudden change of Eren's feelings about Mikasa was one thing that pissed me off, but also because Isayama's original ending wasn't even supposed to be the one that we got. It felt like he only wrote that specific ending for the fans and readers (and maybe because he was tired too; have you seen the bags?) and not because that was the ending that he wanted to write. 

Like you can clearly tell by the last arc that he took a drastic turn on where the story would go to make it "happier," for lack of better words.

 

The way I saw it from the beginning, there was no getting out of it. No happy ending whatsoever. And true to it, the ending with got was bittersweet. Everything Eren did was for nothing because the cycle started back again.

I did actually appreciate that, because it showed us something that was an actual reality. Even if it did help for a bit, nothing really changed because it's in humanity's nature to always start the cycle once again.

However, what I wanted to see more was his original idea of everybody dying. Instead of that, Isayama went and tried to pull a Naruto (with Armin and Eren) so that they could talk it out, understand each other, and come to an understanding. (The understanding being: the reasons of his actions, Eren's need to die, and their promises) 

From an interview (if I'm not mistaken), the original ending was apparently inspired by "The Mist," which is basically about the protagonist being the cause of his loved ones downfall in an attempt to protect them. Sounds familiar, right? It feels like it was going in that direction, then Isayama just decided to make them all resolve their differences, for some reason. 

I personally don't hate the ending; like I said, I just think it was a tad forced on his end.

 

On the Mikasa/Eren thing, do NOT get me wrong. Mikasa is and has always been an important character to this story. Her as well as her relationship with Eren IS special. Now just because what they share is special doesn't necessarily mean that it's "love.".

On Mikasa's side, she literally lost her parents and met Eren a second later because he killed for her and came to her defense. She latched into him because of that. She was a traumatised child with a deeply unhealthy view of love, so while she did love Eren, the way she showed it could be interpreted as just obsession toward her rescuer.

But the thing with Mikasa's character is that the more the story goes, the more you see her become her own person without Eren. Either it be choosing between her desire to stay with him or her duties as a soldier, or even when she had to make a choice between killing him or not being willing to because of how much she loves him.

I honestly love Mikasa as a character so much. You can see her growth and see her trying to get past her trauma step by step. So, at the end, even though she never stopped loving Eren, she moved on and started a life for herself, because that's where her development was leading to.

Contrary to her, Eren had little to no self-restraint. He was hot-headed and only believed in what he believed, walking the path that he felt was right. He was obsessed with one thing and one thing only (that's literally everything he talked about), never straying from it no matter what happened.

I feel like he never tried to get past his trauma, only feeding into it the more time passed. From always getting into fights because of different perspectives he had with people (i.e., hitting one of the guys who was badmouthing the scouts with a stick) to ending 80% of humanity. Eren was selfish from the beginning; everything he did was for himself. Even the rumbling was partially for himself because his freedom couldn't be obtained if the people outside the walls were still around. 

Eren was and will always be a deeply selfish person, but there is also more to that. (So much more that I'm not even going to get into that here, because I love Eren too much and wouldn't be doing him any justice by resuming his character in just a few words.)

 

TLDR: Eren did not love her romantically (he did LOVE her; it just wasn't romantic), and even if Isayama wanted to say that they did love each other, what they shared ultimately was toxic. It could've turned into something better if Eren was less self-centred, but then again. My issue with all of this is that Isayama underexplored this aspect of their relationship so much that it just was out of the blue (and might I add ooc without getting shot) when Eren started wailing about not wanting her to end up with someone else.

You can't just make a story, build it, and put effort into it, then make a little throwaway line of "Oh, these two love each other, btw." That's just not how it works. You have to develop it for the readers to understand, and even if some people end up not liking it, it wouldn't matter because at least you made it make sense. 

 

Also! I'm not criticising SNK, nor am I criticising Isayama. I've loved this story for years, so really, at the end of the day, even if some things still felt off to me, I will keep loving it to death. (And you can ship whoever you want who gives a fuck!)

[yujeong]

Earlier I read your post on hoping to see a sex scene between Korn and Fasai so that you could compare their scene to Korn and Tonkla`s sex scenes. Now that we have seen them in my opinion there`s a clear difference. Could you tell more about your thoughts on the differences/similarities in how Korn acts around them and what it tells about these relationships. I have lots of thoughts on those scenes and it would be nice to hear how other people see and interpret these scenes.

OMG a 4 Minutes ask! How nice of you to ask me anon, thank you so much ❤️ So, Korn. What a guy. I'm so happy we got the 2 sex scenes, they give us so much info about Korn's character and what his relationship with both Tonkla and Fasai is. Now, let's start with the similarities, because there's fewer of them: - Korn doesn't initiate the sex on either occasion. Tonkla does by poking at his dick a couple of times and telling him he's "not only good at talking", as well as start kissing him all over his chest during the second round that never happened, and Fasai does by signaling to him he should... well, get on with it lol, - Korn uses nicknames to address both Tonkla and Fasai (I can't hear his words clearly, but I have a feeling he calls him Kla? Maybe that's why the subtitle breaks the name for some reason? - it's Tonkla not Ton Kla lol), meaning both relationships are intimate, - Now, I'm mostly adding this for the lols, but neither Tonkla nor Fasai enjoyed their sexual encounter with Korn. This happens for very different reasons though, which I'll explain later, - This is more of a headcanon than anything, but both relationships are transactional, even if KornTonkla doesn't seem like it is (or even FasaiKorn tbh). On to the important stuff, the differences: - In his relationship with Tonkla, Korn is the one who knows more about things he's not willing to share with him (mainly, his new shady job, though I'm sure there could be more down the line), while with Fasai, Korn is the one who's in the dark, - Korn is the one who controls everything that happens during his time with Tonkla (putting on the condom despite being asked not to + making Tonkla come, even though he was "fine not coming"), while Fasai is the one who's in complete control of the encounter with Korn, - Generally, the relationship between Korn and Tonkla seems to revolve around what Korn wants (what he wants to share, his pleasure, his schedule, his money), while the relationship between Korn and Fasai is completely controlled by her and her alone, - Since it's about Korn's pleasure, Tonkla doesn't get to enjoy the sex they have (it's over too quickly for him to come and he feels self-conscious when Korn asks him if he did + telling him he shouldn't bother helping him). The scene is very cleverly shot in a way that this isn't obvious, but I believe a re-watch and the second episode's context might help the audience see it more clearly. On the other hand, Fasai doesn't seem to be enjoying Korn eating her out, because that's not the point of the scene. It's all about power and control. She doesn't seek pleasure from Korn, she seeks his submission, - And now comes the point about both relationships being transactional: the difference, again, is about who the relationship benefits. With Tonkla, it's all about Korn - he gives him money and glimpses of affection and some of his time, for Tonkla to give back his unwavering love and... well, his body. I might seem harsh with this, but those are the vibes the scene gave me and judging by how he talked to him in ep2, I don't think I'm that far off. However, Fasai wants Korn's submission as I said, for which she helps him run his new business in return. It wasn't clear if Fasai is meant to be Korn's girlfriend or not with what little we've gotten, but I'm willing to believe that's the case - Tonkla knows about Fasai, he didn't seem surprised when Korn mentioned her to his father, so she could be what he passes as an official relationship while having Tonkla on the side, - Oh, very important detail which I shall not forget to mention: Korn wants to have sex with Tonkla, while his scene with Fasai suggested he's not doing this willingly. I'd say he's either coerced into submitting to her or it's just... work to him. Either way, key difference to the two scenes so I had to say it. I think that's all I have for now. I am deeply fascinated by all three characters and I can't wait to learn more about them ❤️ I'm sure Sammon will give us many treats involving their storylines.