#these people are the only reason I still interact with the fandom tbh

[basicsunnyy]

I'd add @/astrofhobia and @/dxrkl1ght here too

(And some more but those I remember rn)

Just wanted to appreciate some of the artists that have LITERALLY carried the TSAMS fandom and are the only reason I still draw:

Feel free to add ones I missed -

In order:

@ayyy-imma-ninja @eddwardharrison @keplitz @astrofairy06 @garbagechocolate @galaxysugarr @thatonebgcharacter @cattoncondy

[rat-n-atty]

The last gift 🎁

Animation and some soppy rambling from yours truly!

( featuring in order, @stillnothereforanyrealreason @hyperbaguette @chaosisunderratedd @fandomgoesahhhhhhhhh @echostarsys @livzees (Hi wife!) @sakuwura-meow-meow @xcoffeebomb @cookiepopcat @axelcx11z @coralalala64 @tiredsmashbros @its-a-me-mango @libbytwq @bear-boi-5 @bluestrawberrybunny @briandraws )

BOOM!

REDESIGNS ONCE AGAIN ONLY THIS TIME ATTY APPARENTLY HAS LOST HER WRISTS (jk, but now her hands float for some reason, not Rats tho...)

Okay now it's time for me to rant about all the wonderful people I have made in the animation :D

@stillnothereforanyrealreason , @hyperbaguette and @chaosisunderratedd y'all are...the best friends I had ever got the chance of meeting. We have been through the deepest shit ever in our life and yet we all still managed to still be friends and that really surprises me. You guys are my truest friends that I don't mind rambling about redeemable villains with or maybe even share some shitty humor or go to y'all for some art inspiration but overall just have a really fun time.

I want to thank you for all these crazy 2 years we have been friends for and hopefully we still continue that crazy questionable bond 💜💜💜

@fandomgoesahhhhhhhhh and @echostarsys y'all are a bunch of freaks tbh /silly but you're bestest mates that I could ever ask for! I love hanging out with you guys and yapping about who knows what whether it be Smg4 or it be your Aus! I love how passionate you two are and I love how you guys support my own small projects as well! You guys have made me feel comfortable talking about my interests in a really long time and I just want to thank you for that 💜💜💜

You guys are amazing and I hope you two never stop being you (except maybe Tari...stop being rude /silly/j)

@livzees HI WIFE YOU LOVABLE BEST PERSON I HAVE EVER MET YOU!!!!!! You are the best person I have ever had the chance to meet and get to know! You're super funny and your art is really cool and I love all that you do and create including your Rivalry Au! You don't mind if I yap too much or send you the dumbest things, you make me feel seen and noticed and I am so happy I can be silly with you (considering I proposed with an onion ring)

Seeing you pop up on my screen makes my day and being with you in VC trying to make you laugh at my dumb jokes makes me happy! I love you sm (/p) and always keep being your amazing lovable you ❤️❤️❤️❤️

@sakuwura-meow-meow , @cookiepopcat and @xcoffeebomb YOU GUYSSSSSS UGHHH WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?????? You 3 are the coolest people ever in my eyes, even though I tend to make fun of you a lot...you mean a lot to me. You listened, you laughed, and you supported me when I felt like no was. You made me feel like I belong and that I mattered.

You all helped me get out of my shell which I am grateful for (but you should also be terrified about too, I have breeched containment and cannot be held for much longer /hj) I hope you 3 never stop being your amazing selves and I hope you know that you all hold a very special place in my half dead bitchy heart ❤️❤️❤️

@axelcx11z and @coralalala64 YOUUUU!!!! THE SILLIES!!!! YES YOU!!! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!!!! I'll have to admit...talking to you guys at first was so nerve-racking for me because I look up to y'all but after some chats...I realize y'all are just a bunch of the silliest people ever lol but I love that about yous.

Cora, you are the first person I saw on my page and instantly had to follow because I thought your art style was so cool and I think your Aus and your own characters and creatures (as deadly as they can be, one of them gave me rabies /hj) is the wonderful silly aspect about you that I love 🫴👑✨

Axel, you're the chilliest guy I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and I love how you even consider me your doppelganger considering how little we interact lol (sorry, I'm just too shy) . I still totally love all that you do tho no matter what fandom you're in; I fell in love with your style when I first saw it so never stop creating dude 🫴👑✨

@tiredsmashbros , @its-a-me-mango and @libbytwq or as I call you, the holy Smg4 Trinity /silly. It was such an honor to finally meet you all in the TSB server but to be honest I was also on the verge of having a panic attack because I was overwhelmed being surrounded by a bunch of people I look up to the most. I know I'm not active much and I barely have anything to say (unless it's about AJR or my cursed hear me outs) But I absolutely enjoyed any interaction I got.

You guys are the biggest inspirations in my life and I hope that one day I'll be able to achieve what you do (but not today lol) you guys are awesome, I love your rants and your complicated lore and most of all, I love your art and I hope you never stop doing what you love 🫴👑👑👑✨✨✨

@bear-boi-5 HI! HELLO! IT'S ME! YOU ARE ONE OF THE FIRST PEOPLE I LOOKED UP TO! When I first joined Tumblr, I remember your pretty little masked face /silly showing up on my screen and I immediately saw and loved it! You are such a master at traditional art and I love how detailed it is and how cool it looks!

When you first made fanart of my Smg5 I was absolutely shook considering at the time I was still a fairly small creator with only like 50 followers lmao but I want to thank you, if you didn't draw my Smg5 I probably wouldn't have drawn her much either assuming that people just hated her.

Meeting you in the TSB server was the coolest thing in my life because you're one chill dude and I hope that maybe when I overcome my overbearing shyness we could get to know each other better lol

🫴👑✨

@bluestrawberrybunny and @briandraws Brian, you're a freak /pos like HOW???? HOW DO YOU HAVE THE TIME, AND THE PASSION AND THE ENERGY FOR WHAT YOU DO???? Honestly if I ever had the amount of energy you have, I would be in a bloody coma. You are the first person I ever had the chance of actually connecting with a Tumblr moot (and realizing how unhinged they are /hj) but I just wanted to say thank you for tolerating me this long lol. Your an amazing artist and even an amazing author (even though I think you should be sentenced to a mental hospital for flooding the server about your Marware obsession /j )

And you! Blue! I love all your work as well! I love apprenticeship and I love your tangents! Having you and meeting you in the server has been a treat but it's also nerve racking because I'm still shy lol. I think your art is so cute and I hope you never stop!

🫴👑👑✨✨

Because of the song I couldn't add as many people as I wanted but here are some honorable mentions!

@deltaruinedcoco37 @purpdrawsthings @hamlos @chaoticlad @bow-and-aro-child @theartistisme43 @b-r-i-n-g-x @grinnames @strange0-0storm @goofy-goobers-things @arco-doodles @artist-heart83 @sspacesillyy @hi-imlooneybirdie @pisschxn @rainstormsart and PLENTY MORE BUT TUMBLR FUCKING HATES ME SO IF YOU SEE THIS THEN I LIKE YOU TOO

I love all that you guys do wether that be art or writing or theories or ANYTHING ELSE just know that you'll always have a supporter 🫴👑✨

Now this brings me to the end of my birthday party sadly, I hope y'all liked it and I hope y'all didn't eat all of my birthday cake and thank you for all the birthday art and wishes but before y'all go...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

The many joys of sharing your birthday with a holiday, it's often overlooked lol but I hope you guys enjoy it whether you're alone or you have a partner. Practice self love too because you're also important ❤️❤️❤️

Okay that's it

BI Y'ALL!

[velnna]

Hii Maf! Just wanted to say that I really love your work - Im quite new to your webcomics since I knew you bcz of baldurs gate, but Im enjoying stray souls a lot so far! If you dont mind the ask, how did you grow your art presence on the internet?

Thank you!!

There's no simple answer to that, really 😅 it's a mix of things over many years at this point. I'll give you a rough timeline, might be easier lmao:

2010-2013: I joined deviantArt and built a tiny community there through things like art trades, challenges, joining groups, etc

2013-2017: I dropped from the face of the art space online to focus on studying and getting a job

2017-2019: I indeed got a good job and decided that in my free time I was gonna focus on my comic, and that I wanted it to do as well as possible so I built an audience on social media (mostly Instagram). The way I did it was by, again, participating in a shitton of challenges, drawing and posting like a madman (which I still do tbf) and, most importantly, engaging with other people's work. I think an important part of being and growing as an artist online is nurturing the community you want to surround yourself with. If you like someone's work, go out of your way to let them know by interacting with it, sharing, etc. It can't just be you posting into the void and expecting others to magically get on board

2019-2022: I started working with Webtoon which gave me an extra boost, started branching out into twitter, etc, kept just doing my thing tbh

2023-2024: in early 2023 I decided to go full time for personal reasons, and halfway through the year I got swept away with Baldur's Gate 3 lmao. I'll say being in a "fandom" definitely gave me a bit of a boost in numbers (especially on tumblr lol) but as far as ways to grow on social media go, it's not my favourite - I still very much only work on what I want and if that happens to be fanart it's a happy coincidence

These days there's nothing I do to grow on socials, really. I try to direct people to things like Patreon here and there because I need to keep an eye on the financial side, and have ideas I want to be able to create and fund independently, but even at that I'm not great

It's obviously important to note that all the while I've been drawing a lot and improving at it. Ultimately it doesn't matter how much you understand or work on your social media presence if the actual content doesn't stand out in one way or another

[rawliverandgoronspice]

re: sympathetic ganondorf vs evil for evil’s sake ganondorf, i think this is misrepresenting and underselling what’s actually offputting to people

“i’m evil because i’m evil” or “i’m evil because demise is evil” and the associated lust for power simply for its own sake has always been lame and low effort. there’s a reason it’s “shit tier” on the classic “villain motive tiers” thing

“i’m evil but there’s enough nuance to make the player at least somewhat sympathetic to me even if i’m still ultimately a bad guy” is a good thing that people like? i’ve never personally interacted with a zelda player who thinks windwaker ganondorf ruined the character or anything - he’s generally regarded as the gold standard of villain writing both in and out of zelda. this is roughly “high tier” on the tier chart

“actually TWIST i’m not evil at all, it’s the good guys who were evil all along, i’ve done nothing wrong and i’m completely justified in my righteous quest against the status quo, you’re the real secret true villain for being complicit in preserving it” is technically regarded as “elder god tier” on the motive tier chart but i would personally label it as “oscar bait tier”. these things *can* be compelling in conversation with the existing landscape, but often it comes across as a deliberate effort to subvert the audience’s expectations for the sake of being unpredictable (or worse, for the sake of proving you’re the smartest one in the room). in separate works where this conversation/critique is the entire point (eg. Watchmen or The Boys), that’s not necessarily a bad thing, and the audience sets their expectations accordingly. in an established, long-running franchise, however, this almost always reads as dripping with contempt for the audience, like walking into a room and going “you morons like this shit? let me, a person much smarter than you, explain what it’s Actually about, because you’re an idiot if you’ve been a fan of this series before now”

on top of that, in the context of a series like zelda, this type of story feels myopic and disrespectful to the future of the series. “welp i burned down the 20+ years of lore behind this character so i could do a deconstruction, good luck using them in any capacity in the future, sounds like a you problem”

all this is to say, i think it’s a bit disingenuous/strawman-y to suggest that people put off by this want ganondorf to have 0 depth at all. there’s a lot of room for different kinds of depth, it’s just that the trend of the last decade has been for “depth” to mean “condescending deconstruction”

Hey!

Thanks for taking the time to write this ask, I think it warrants an interesting conversation. To me, there's like, a lot of things about what you're saying, and tbh I do see where you're coming from --in part.

First thing first... No yeah unfortunately some people Are hostile to even WW Ganondorf. It's been a rising trend in the fandom since TotK was released --people being very against the concept of any additional complexity to the character, either not getting it or considering anything he says pure manipulation that doesn't even warrant a conversation, literally making fun of people who were intrigued by this and wanting more out of this particular thread. This position not only absolutely exists within the fandom --less so on tumblr, I'll agree there-- but it's not even hard to stumble upon as a pretty regular opinion that gets tossed around. I had some interesting asks thrown my way, let's say. The idea that Ganondorf is a remotely interesting character that deserves more thought than what he gets is very much Extremely not the norm, and the very fact that you, as a fan, likes him as a guy is perceived as weird and missing the point by a lot of people. Like a lot a lot of people.

So I'll just... I guess I haven't clarified my position in a while, so I will reclarify my position on our favorite evil dude: I do like him perfectly fine as a villain, I do not want him to be "redeemed" by the narrative, I think he works fantastically as an ongoing threat, I think they could make him even scarier and more offputting and that would be super fun and thrilling... and I also think he already is complex. Like, inherently. Everything Nintendo has been putting into him since his first appearance is complicated --even their attempts at flattening him back in TotK do not fully work because they can't scrub him of the extremely loaded ideas they injected into him from the get-go. Nobody forced Nintendo to do a Mega Orientalism when inventing him, nobody made them write the NPCs to have this super weird antagonistic relationship to the gerudos in OoT, nobody made them have all this lore of the one man born every hundred years, raised by twin witches --and then nobody made them press on that tension point in Wind Waker explicitely, and then, in a more subtle fashion, in TP too. Nobody forced their hand when it came to having the strange "round ear" situation, suggesting (confirmed even, in additional canon) gerudos are born unblessed. The fact of the matter is: everything to make the relationship between Hyrule and the gerudos complicated has been there since 1998. There's no need for a Switcharoo to prove that anyone is smarter than the audience: everything messy has always been baked within the worldbuilding itself. It's in the cartridges already!!

Perspective on it is what could change, though --because, except in Wind Waker, we never get even a hint of a sense that we should think, as an audience, that Hyrule's super weird relationship to the gerudos is maybe questionable. Worth thinking about at least. Which, given the optics, is wild to me that to bring this particular can of worms up is still very largely considered crazy talk within the fandom (that, or the Sheikah situation across the series, also insane in many ways). And yes, it would perhaps lead to themes that are a bit heavier than what Zelda has been overtly dealing with (though, again, Majora's Mask exists --and I do find a lot of unpacked ideas in the Wild Era, like the very unquestionned gerudo bridal pipeline, very uhhh unfortunate already if I'm being honest --even moreso because it is unquestioned). But Zelda, when well handled narratively, can do wonderful things with evocative subtext, open doors never fully crossed, a lynchian pressure on what should feel offputting. We don't even need a sad monologue about it. It doesn't even need to be handled explicitely. But I think the pressure point is just better when understood and incorporated in some form, instead of being denied so hard the world itself start to feel incomplete and unlived.

I do want to say... I get what you mean with the whole "oscar bait" thing. There has been, historically and in recent years, a tendency to be driven by an external, almost panicked sense of morality rather than by the internal drive of a story, its internal thematic logic. I also do think it can feel very corporate, very "Disney looking back at its own movies and scrubbing off everything Buzzfeed deemed problematic in 2014 while making everything glossy and lifeless and awful" and it's not that great!!! and tbh I can't say I would trust Nintendo to handle any appreciation for the fact that the story of an eternal golden kingdom cheering on beating the evil outsiders who want to corrupt everything good and pure and blonde about that perfect inherently good place, is like, extremely not neutral. It absolutely is a delicate thread to weave, and I agree that putting a definitive end to Hyrule is probably not the smartest IP move to do. But, Hyrule doesn't have to be condemned as Bad, it can be merely complicated. And ongoing, regardless. To keep on with the Disney parallel: The Lion King would feel weird if we started to peel off the internal politics of the hyenas, it's just not the right place for it, when everything about this story revolves around the Righteousness of the Divine Right to Rule. But if the Lion King was an ongoing series that had been looping on itself for a while... wouldn't it make sense to figure out how to achieve majesty by studying other angles too, eventually? Is it that strange to suggest the exercise is like, possible? That it can be handled with artistry and soul?

I feel like... Yes, to acknowledge Ganondorf's humanity --not even to coddle it, just to acknowledge it-- implies taking in everything that makes him who he is, and that might rattle some foundational ideas about why this ancestral fight is even happening in the first place. I also do not think it means that he must be Good now. He can still punch a child and cackle maniacally, he can still be unredeemable --he can still destroy himself and others out of the most unconstructive spite ever, and we can still see the purpose in defeating him while basking in the "yea....." left in his wake (Wind Waker did that!!! Wind Waker did that and then we had more Zelda games!! crazy how that happened). This is hardly undoable. It does take some narrative skill, and some commitment to taking a bit of a risk, but Ganondorf is genuinely unmanageable as a character if you insist on your refusal to acknowledge his foundations --and I think it's partially why TotK's story is such a mess. He sells a TON, but you can't have him breathe slightly too loud without risking the entire world falling apart. They did try in TotK, so very hard, and to me they still failed--as insane as he behaves, Hyrule still doesn't come out of this looking good or particularly justified, because the very central core of Ganondorf's character is to be subjugated, and then rebelling in a destructive and brutally selfish, uncompromising manner that ends up robbing him of humanity --and the discomfort of that premise will therefore always haunt the conversation. Nintendo dug themselves into that mess. I feel like a lot of the Ganondorf fans I know merely... point at that. At the mess. And I feel like the longer the games avoid this mess, the more coats of spinach green they slather ontop of his skin, and the more nonsensical characterization they pile up, and the more Ganondorf will become a parody of who he once was, and what made him compelling to begin with.

And to top it all off, as if he wasn't contentious and complicated enough to handle already, they leaned into the internet turning him into a sex symbol for some fucking reason??? Yeah I genuinely have no idea how Nintendo will manage this dude moving forward, because to me, he is, at best, an endless source of (very lucrative) headaches, and at worst a ticking time bomb. I'm not sure how long they can get away with that TotKification strategy, is what I mean.

(Also: I tried to not overdwell on all the incredibly complicated conversation re: race and orientalism, but it's borderline impossible to have this conversation without acknowledging that I have never seen a major pop culture villain receive more pushback against "woobification" than him, and I don't think it's a complete coincidence let's say :) )

[dreamwreaver]

godamnit those fans are also getting pissy about a fanart of Verosika x Charlie on Twitter. Goes to show *any* ship of Charlie that isn't Chaggie is apparently bad and not canon so it shouldn't be made according to these people🙄

they're only proving your point tbh cuz normies are sucking all the fun out of shipping

If you're talking about the one deerly depart did then I just have to laugh. Because 1. It's fabulous art and Gin always does fabulous art. And 2. I mean... have you SEEN some of gin's other stuff? That charosika piece is one of the tamer ones. Also, someone paid for it?

I mean this also happened to another artist just a few months ago. This one was I guess a known ra shipper, or at least known for their ra art rather. They've since come out as a multishipper on bsky and are very nice so I always try to give them a like and a boost where I can. Anyways, someone commissioned them for a charlastor piece and it, was, GORGEOUS! It was a nsfw piece but my god there's no denying the sheer talent. Unfortunately, two assholes felt the need to bully them on bsky about it and the piece was taken down. Thankfully the shipping communities on bsky are actually far more civil because I had actual ra shippers in that person's replies saying the same thing we say, "Block the tags and move on this is pathetic"

It was honestly very refreshing. Those shippers I respect, even if because of the ones I don't their ship gives me visceral squick. Not their fault that toxic people are into the same thing. But back to the Charosika piece, like... it's still gay; they're two hot ladies, what's the big fucking deal? It's not gay enough for them now? Or is it just that they're made that yet again; someone saw the chemistry between two characters who have NEVER interacted instead of the chemisuck that their oh so precious canon ship is? And again, I feel like the anger I tend to let out in the asks gives the impression that I hate chaggie. I don't. I really, truly don't. I hate CANON chaggie, I hate the way that the main fucking couple is so watered down you could air hazbin in Russia essentially all unedited. You couldn't do that with the owl house or Steven universe, and Hazbin is a fucking adult animated cartoon! I hate the fact that chaggie content in the fandom is honestly hard to find because I've run the numbers and more than half the fics tagged chaggie are actually stories about other ships that have Chaggie tagged even though it's just a background pairing at best. I hate that a lot of the people who might like Chaggie well enough on its own but have another otp use it to shit on others even though they're pushing a canon sapphic ship yo the side because "Ooh toxic yaoi!" And infantilize one half of a grown ass adult couple! I hate that Viv is now trying so hard to backpedal on how bad the show fucked them up in the first season by going overkill with the chaggie pda when what's really needed is to either fix the writing in their dynamic or let the fucking relationship end because from a solely writing perspective it feels so, so FORCED. Like Charlie cent let go because it's a comfortable if not perfect relationship and vaggie can't let go because this is the literal person who saved her fucking life and being with her means everything even though doing so strips vaggie of literally all character agency and personality!

Deep breaths, side tangent over. But no, my assessment that normies who know nothing about fan culture and don't care to learn because it's trendy are the reason for the rise of fandom puritainism and the obsession with the "it's canon" part of it. And fucking hell I hope they get over it soon.

[cfr749]

Initial Thoughts on Chenford in 6x07

All right... I'm feeling... a lot at the moment, so just sharing my initial reactions before seeing anyone else's. I'm sure my feelings will evolve. Also this turned into a GD essay and I'm sorry.

The Good

Grey acknowledging that Lucy was going through a lot ABOVE & BEYOND the break up. I just wish he'd mentioned the shooting, too. Lucy deserves to be more than her relationship with Tim and I need to actually see that in the future.

Lucy laying out 2 key things in her conversation with Grey - how easily Tim walked away and that he had no right to make that decision for her

Prior to the last scene (see The Ugly below), I thought Tim's interactions with the therapist were reasonably well done; if only therapy was that easy in real life lol

"You've always got a home with me" - I loved this final scene between Lucy and Tamara. I don't really have feelings either way about Tamara at this point, and this still hit me right in the heart.

Smitty's poll made me laugh, but also another solid indicator that these writers / producers do in fact really enjoy laughing at the expense of the fandom and shippers (which, whatever, I don't care that they do, I'd prob do the same; but it does irk me when people act like these writers should be worshipped because of all the things they "give" us)

The Tim

"I'm not depressed. I broke up with her."

"I was her TO." Not her friend, cuz god knows Tim has yet to deal with the fact that he started banging his former Rookie I suppose.

I dunno whether to put this in The Good or The Bad at this point; it depends on where they take it, so instead Tim gets a section all about why he's a dick.

To be clear, I do not like that Tim is a dick. But I actually do kind of like that it is very clear TO THE AUDIENCE that Tim is being kind of a dick. Do I still think people will bend over backwards to defend him? Of course they will.

From my perspective, I love Tim, I understand that he thinks he's doing the right thing, and has lots and lots of trauma. I've never seen Tim as a character that magically healed at some point between Seasons 1 & 5 (please see his storyline with his dad, his ongoing issues with UC work and unwillingness to confront or deal with them, his feelings about therapy historically, his inability to dump Ashley, etc. etc.). He's never been perfect and he doesn't need to be.

All of those things are true. None of those things give him a free pass to be kind of a dick. He still has to take accountability for how he treated Lucy (which, to be clear, was like sh*t).

The Bad

Lucy being petty AF with the invites to Tamara's dinner - let her be ANGRY, but give me villain Lucy over this dumb sh*t.

Lucy having no one other than Grey to talk to.

Others acting like Lucy is actually kind of pathetic (why do these writers love sh*tting on her so much? girl could not be down and kicked any harder at this point) -- Celina / Nolan and the double dumping crap, Lucy thinking Grey paid actors and him telling her she was out of her damn mind

The last interaction between Lucy and Tim. I am so angry for her. I needed to see that from her, but instead it felt kind of like her being dumped / a kicked puppy all over again. We got it, thanks. What's next? Lucy being incredibly happy with the hottest man on earth? I'm here for it tbh. Lucy plotting Tim's murder? Also here for it at this point. LOL.

The Ugly

I could not hate the implication of that final scene with Tim and the therapist and the door shutting more. There was ZERO reason they couldn't have had him show up during the day, and it actually disgusts me that they are pushing this line again, but especially with Tim. I am literally NEVER this dramatic, but in this case I really hope they did that to just get a reaction, because if anything were to actually happen between Tim and the therapist, I'd be 100% done with this ship and show as would a whole lot of the audience (I think). If I kept watching, it would only be to see Lucy be absurdly happy without Tim.

Well, what'd I miss? What did y'all think?

[owlgirl495]

ok, so i know i rarely actually post my own words on here but with the last 911 episode i’ve been wanting to say something.

i’ve been reading a lot of what people have written (and i’ve added my own thoughts in the tags of many posts) but now that i’ve had time to process a little, see what others are saying, and talk to my irl friends about it a little, there’s one thing that i’ve only seen mentioned like once and i wanna talk about some more. more people have probably mentioned this and i just probably haven’t seen it and these thoughts are subject to change and all that but here we go:

it makes me really upset how little of buck and tommy’s relationship we actually got to see. and i know that they can’t focus on a side plot like that for a super long time and that it’s not the bucktommy show but i was actually okay with only getting scraps until the breakup and here’s kind of why.

they’ve been dating for six months. SIX MONTHS. and they seem to know NOTHING about each other. and i truly didn’t get this vibe until the last episode (8x06) and i think that’s why it feels so off for me.

at the end of season 7 they looked like they were really trying to get to know each other both on and off screen, they were talking about important things with each other, and actually trying to have real conversations. and then in season 8 there’s just none of that.

i didn’t think anything of it at first because i figured they just had those conversations off-screen in the FOUR MONTHS we didn’t see. but with 8x06 it truly feels like they didn’t have a single real conversation that we hadn’t seen.

8x06 shows us that they don’t know about each others’ exs at all, buck doesn’t know how tommy views his sexuality, tommy doesn’t know that buck hates basketball, so what exactly have they been talking about outside of the silly goofyness of 911 subplots for six months??

tbh i understand having them break up (i really wanted them to be endgame but i understand if that was never actually the plan) but the way they broke up felt so wrong.

i would’ve even understood if the real reason they had broken up was because after six months they realized that they don’t actually know anything about each other but even so, until 8x06, that was never indicated. they had a couple serious conversations with each other in season 7 and since there were no hints either way, i had assumed those had continued off-screen.

to have a well-liked couple with a decent amount of screen time break up without showing us pretty much any of the actual downfall of the relationship, giving what felt like a shoehorned in reason for the breakup, and only giving us last minute hints at the possible actual reason for the relationship ending feels shitty, if i’m being real.

i know it’s just a fictional show and it’s not that serious but this really hurt. i hate how much i let this get to me but i really let this show get my hopes up. it was my main form of escapism and something that consistently made me happy outside of things in my everyday life that have been stressing me out. i thought i could sink a little further into it after the results of the election but now it’s no longer the same form of comfort for me.

i’ll probably still continue watching the show and i absolutely adore all the people i’ve gotten to interact with (even in my really small way of interacting) through this fandom but 911 does feel a little tainted for me at the moment.

i’m probably missing some stuff here and a lot of this is just rambling but that’s it for now, i hope you are all doing okay and hanging on to whatever you can to make this a little easier <3

[dracooogone]

alr cw opinions on ships and characterization in fandom (not forcing you to change your opinion) because sometimes people are crybabys /gen /neg

you have absolutely no idea how much i hate lightbrush man. everytime i go to paintbrush’s tag, first thing i see is just. either lightbrush or poly lights and its beginning to get on my nerves. ESPECIALLY when they characterized as a tsundere.

first, i may clarify that i LOVE fanbrush since ive first joined the fandom (early 2022) but im kinda tired of seeing either fan, test tube or lightbulb paired with them all of the time. PLEASE let them take a breather and hang out with someone else IM BEGGING YOU. like marshmallow or apple or oj or microphone or floory ANYONE but i need some paintbrush content that isnt exclusively lightbrush or poly lights.

i adore paintbrush with all of my heart, i adore their character, i love their design although its simple as fuck, and did i mention i absolutely love their character. their character development is something that i think its well written; how they evolve from raging and need of lead individual to someone passionate and creative object without absolutely removing the last ones mentioned. and also their character arc with marsh and how they started finding out that their need of order and focus on the show itself started to drive them away from people they cared about (in ii 12, you can see how they go “Thats right! Im gonna paint! Dont anyone interrupt me! Im gonna do it! … this is going to be a long challenge.”

all of that and then they are just… reduced to simply either someone with no personality, an abusive and “angry-for-no-reason-person” or lightbulbs all time protector who hurts anyone who lays a finger on her.

yeah yeah give me all that yap about lightbulb missing paintbrush and viceversa shit but you can actually see paintbrush enjoying being in iii if you notice and not just the lightbulb part. they have talks with oj, silver spoon, i think candle??? (havent watched iii for while), bot, test tube, floory, cabby, etc. and they dont magically bring up lightbulb unless she is brought up, but all of the fandom think they think of lightbulb all of their time there. also knowing them i dont think they would enjoy being stuck on a dark island just to compete again when they can just go back to do their art classes, and they do ENJOY it.

now lightbulb umhh i have no opinion on her characterization besides the fandom infantilizing her please fucking stop. she still has emotions although shes coded to be a joyful fella. also notice how she doesn’t exclusively miss paintbrush vro.

NOW on the ii 17 part o kinda hated that part but ehhhhh extra points for Jazzy almost making me cry because they literally just lost the people they were close with and we got paintbrush telling everyone they should totally all kts /massive j but thanks Brian and Jazzy for such awesomesauce parts

tbh, i just wish to see more paintbrush angst that isnt only lightbrush angst, but about who they are and their interactions between marshmallow. or just anything with paintbrush that doesn’t reference lightbulb or the final 4 bright lights. paintbrush being a individual themselves and not just some stupid background character.

also fun fact paintbrush doesnt even draw because they found it fun like someone usually would but because thats expected from them

[zeroducks-2]

People hating evil characters is weird to me. I guess the only characters I actually hate are annoying ones cause usually that’s not a point of their character in the story, they just happen to be infuriating. Like Slade being a bad guy is cause he’s a bad guy, that’s like his whole point as a character. Yeah he can be nuanced and worse at times but he exists to be an antagonist. It completely makes sense to me that the Tara thing makes people uncomfortable but he’s still a fictional antagonist, it’s not really a moral failing on the part of the creators.

Tbh if you've experienced these characters in any way (read TJC or watched the more recent animated movie or read Deathstroke 2016 or watched Teen Titans 2003, or whatever else features their interaction) and you don't like Slade, that's fair enough.

Loving and hating characters (and every other emotion) happens all the time and it's part of the experience. HOWEVER, I do take issues when it's people who do not know the character, who have barely ever seen them and just heard "stuff" from other fandom people, who go on crusades against said character because "they did bad stuff".

You see it in people who hate Tarantula "because she raped Dick" and they have not read one single comic in which she appears - they have no idea what she even looks like or what's her real name, but they "hate her" because they read a post in which the sexual assault was mentioned and since she "did a bad thing" they "hate her now". This has to be the most shallow fucking thing, but it's convenient because if you hate on the "bad guy" it must mean you're morally pure and upstanding and you're one of the good ones.

Back to your point, hating on a character without any kind of reasoning or nuance only because they did "bad things" is the death of critical thinking. But people out there act like characters who do shit that's even vaguely considered unethical or morally reprehensible irl need to be hated, and like their existence is some sort of moral failing from the writer's part, and it's so fucking annoying and childish.

Which leads me to my second point which is a tad more controversial, but hey I'm a bitch with insufferable opinions so here we go I guess.

I'm bothered by people who pick a character and use them as their scapegoat, and I mean collectively as a fandom. It kind of is the case with Slade but he isn't the perfect example, however the principle is the same: hating on the villain, especially when the villain is very human and makes very human mistakes, using them as the only person who is capable of doing evil and therefore acquitting every other character of anything they ever did.

With Slade it becomes that Slade is the only bad guy of his story, who hurt Grant and hurt Adeline and hurt Joseph and raped Tara and killed and maimed and tortured, and therefore Grant has no blame in what he did to himself, and Adeline is just a poor innocent woman who was hurt by her unfaithful husband, and Joey did nothing wrong and everything that happened to him is solely Slade's fault, and Tara wasn't already a mercenary hitwoman for hire who lied and cheated and killed - rather she was just a poor innocent girl who was manipulated and corrupted by the Big Bad Guy.

I don't know if you see what I mean with this, but it's very much a thing in a lot of fandoms, especially when it comes to horror media where there is a cast of controversial, "imperfect" characters. One example of this is Mouthwashing, in which (spoilers ahead of course) there is a cast composed of people who range from being downright horrible to having very human but very noticeable flaws - every single one of them is "guilty" of something, and the protagonist in particular is also the one with the most prominent antisocial behaviors. But he's not benefiting from them - Jimmy isn't someone whose life is made better by his piece of shit behavior, rather this is a person with issues and who struggles with mental health (he's suicidal and has very strong delusions), giving him a very hard time keeping his life in order. Which of course doesn't make any of the horrible shit he does less horrible, but I think it's interesting how he's (mostly) not acting out of convenience, rather he's acting out his own demons. And what the fandom did was deciding that this guy is the only one to blame, and that his shitty behavior absolves everyone else of their sins. He's effectively the scapegoat and everyone else - it doesn't matter if they act selfishly, childishly, violently, cowardly or anything really - is guileless and has never done anything wrong in their lives. Jimmy is the only one who's to blame, and the rest of the cast is made of pure perfect angels.

I've seen this happen in many many cases. And it sort of turns into a mob of people whose only fandom personality is to hate on this one guy and gather Upstanding Morality Points, and of course the natural consequence of this is bothering or even outright harassing people who instead are fans of such flawed characters.

I hate it. I'm not saying anyone should have to like a character in particular, but the way people hate on the "easy to hate" guy instead of trying to understand them, especially when it's a complex character whose action make them suffer as much as the people they're hurting, distances me from fandom spaces. People will see a feral beast of a character with their leg caught in a bear trap hissing and growling while in the process of chewing their own limb off, and will toss stones at them and call them disgusting and weird. It's so unkind and I hate it so much.

[talas-first-lady]

I tthink in general s5 and s6 lacked in the relationship department. When z1 came she formed bonds with Ray, nate, Amaya, Jax, Sara etc. Z2 comes and she has 1 episode with ava and then nothing till s7, and then it's just behrad and by extension nate and later John. Astra had a connection with John and then just Spooner and in s7 with Gideon and b. Spooner had bonding with behrad and Astra and ava till s7 where she connects with others too. They even say that in s7.

To continue my previous thoughts, I think s5 and s6 had a lot of cast changes happening at the same time (while the other seasons had 1-2 cast changing) and at the same time a lot of things were changing as well, no time bureau so ava had to have a new place in the waverider, there was a new time line, the audience didn't know behrad but the characters knew him, Z2 instead of z1, Ray leaving, Astra, Spooner etc. They could have spare more time for the characters bonding. Last but not least, I tthink even the audience didn't bond with the s5-s7 crew as much as with the s1-s4 crew judging by the amount of fanfictions and other content. But I think that's natural tbh and imo legends did a far better job with constant cast changes than most shows I know.

Personally, I only started watching Legends halfway through season 6. So I can't really speak much to what the fandom was like prior to that.

But a few thoughts:

It's important to consider that the seasons are all different lengths. Season 7 was by far the shortest. So there just literally wasn't as much time to mix and match characters. Season 3, in contrast, was one of the longest.

I don't think we can judge anything on the basis of number of fanfic for the simple fact that there are 6000+ Ao3 fics tagged with a character who died in season 1. Even when you exclude fics that are also tagged as The Flash, Snart has 3200. That would be insane if not for the fact that he had a built-in fanbase before the show started. So the numbers are really skewed.

Sadly we also have to acknowledge that the Arrowverse fandom at large has a racism problem. The Legends fandom is often an exception to this rule (I was honestly really worried that the historical costume tournament I was running was going to turn into a shitshow and could not be more pleased that Amaya and Zari did so well). But we've heard from Candice, Javicia, Azie, and probably others that there are some major issues. So the fact that some people aren't super passionate about Astra and Spooner is *maybe* for reasons besides their relationships with other characters.

Like seriously, there are over 15K Legends fics on Ao3 and not one POC character breaks 2K fics.

I think you're selling short some of the little character connections that didn't get much time but were still meaningful. Spooner had solo time in season 6 with John, Sara, and Mick. Z2 may not have major central arcs with Ava in every episode but she is always interacting with her in the background. Most characters don't get a Here I Go Again level of personal interaction with everyone, but there are definitely relationships when you look for them.

Anyway, time for work!

[no-psi-nan]

[Context]

Ok @fluffydice, sorry for the lateness on this one but as anyone following this blog for over 5 minutes probably knows, I think Aiura x Saiki x Akechi makes so much sense and it is insanely compelling to me. I've posted so much fanfic about it already and that's only like 20% of the Thoughts™ I've had about them tbh.

But when you're doing an analysis of a triad, you have to breakdown 3 different ships and also how they would work simultaneously, so I needed time to write it all up. Buckle in!

Let's talk about Saiki x Aiura first since they had the most screen time together and they're the most "canon". I was genuinely shocked to see how rare this pairing is in fandom when they're literally canonically soulmates and also actually prove it on their every interaction.

From their very first meeting, Aiura and Saiki work together flawlessly to save Yumehara's life many times in a row + the life of the truck driver. Aiura then figures out how to hang out with Saiki without having to deal with his tsundere rejection, which he can leave at any time (unlike with Teruhashi) because she knows about his powers and won't stir up trouble if he leaves. Saiki keeps allowing her to schedule 1:1 dates and is basically like "don't bother asking me, you know I'll go" about the dessert buffet date lol.

Even when they disagree and neither of them will back down, they still work wonderfully together and they both end up learning and growing from it. Saiki trusts Aiura to help him, and Aiura always agrees to help him just because she cares. That's HUGE considering how hard it is for Saiki to ask for literally anything!!

Aiura also respects Saiki's boundaries more than anyone else imo. She only joins him when he's out in public, she tries her usual heavy-handed flirting at first but quickly adjusts when she realizes he's not into it, she puts her clothes back on immediately after realizing that she misunderstood the situation, she starts asking him out instead of just joining him, she asks for a kiss and respects his "no", and she hugs him anyways because they both really need it after the stress of the day.

And Saiki responds to that, opening up more with Aiura than he has with anyone else in way less time. Aiura had under 2 years with Saiki while Saiki's core friend group had like 6 years, and yeah, she benefited some from his character growth over the past 4 years. But still, the way he banters with her shows how comfortable he is– he's more open with her than with anybody else, and not just with his annoyance like he is with Toritsuka lmao.

Also, come ON, there's just no one more deserving of an epic husband/wife local god with transformation powers than Aiura. She works so hard with her powers to help everyone and convinces Saiki to help others more and she helps him get the best outcomes for everyone. Let her get her hands on her soulmate who can make her bi dreams come true, who can give her third eye a break from constantly seeing auras and death marks, who can grow big fluffy wings to hug her with, etc etc etc!!!!! LET HER HAVE SOME FUN FFS!!

There's wayyyy more people forcing Aiura into the platonic bucket with Saiki than I've seen with Teruhashi (even though Aiura has way better chemistry with Saiki), which forces me to wonder whether it's because Aiura is more overtly sexual and "lowbrow" than Teruhashi, showing more cleavage, getting bad grades, putting stickers on her face because they're cute, showing pride in her sexual escapades. None of those make her a bad person, but a lot of people seem to think it does.

Some people more reasonably point out that if Saiki is very asexual and Aiura has a high libido then that could cause trouble for them. Well, first of all, while Saiki is pretty much obviously somewhere in the asexual and aromantic spectrum, his belief that boyfriend is the next level after best friend shows that demiromantic / demisexual is a strong possibility for him. And honestly I'd argue that whatever he has going on with Satou is at least partially sexual, though I'm not going to get into that in this already long-ass post lol.

But basically, I think there's a lot of room for a demiromantic and graysexual interpretation of Saiki and considering that Aiura has apparently stopped going out with other men for at least 2 years with no ill effects that we can see, it's quite possible that they'll be very compatible in bed after all. And if not, that's where consensual non-monogamy comes in lol. But genuinely I think that the fact that they're soulmates means that there probably aren't any major incompatibilities between them, otherwise the term would be meaningless.

So yeah, makes sense and really compelling because there's so much room for stories on how they actually got together, how they work together as their powers continue growing, and what their future looks like!

OKAY, now it's time for the Saikechi essay lol.

Actually, I don't think Saikechi needs a ton of justification, because it's kinda standard extrovert x introvert childhood friends to lovers lol. Saikechi only isn't more popular because Akechi appears for like 5 whole minutes in the undubbed second season of the anime and he was annoying for 90% of that time hsfjdlshfks rip.

But yeah, Akechi and Saiki are quite perfect together, as shown by the horse gambling episode. Akechi can see right through Saiki's tsundere facade and Akechi is extremely open about his wants and needs, which is important since Saiki can't properly understand his thoughts most of the time and is very bad at figuring that stuff out even with telepathy.

They're both some flavor of ace. Akechi offu's at Teruhashi and comments that she's the most beautiful women he's ever seen, but does not express wanting to date her, which is big ace vibes, plus he's one of the few characters that doesn't have anything to say about Aiura's boobs lol (even Teruhashi can't shut up about them). They're also similar flavors of highly intelligent + neurodivergent. Consider Akechi's analysis skills vs Saiki's ability to come up with dozens, if not hundreds of plans in extremely short notice.

Akechi is also great at making accommodations for Saiki's powers, even without knowing about all of them, and coming up with activities they can do together that will be equally fun and challenging for both of them! And I still love that it was Akechi showing Saiki what a fun low-stakes game can be like that basically repaired Kusuo's relationship with his brother (see: manga, as this was cut from the anime 😩).

It's a very nice and straightforward ship that still leaves a lot of room for fun stories. I've been dying to write a Saikechi frogboil (plotted but needs writing) just because Akechi would be so perfect at it and he would be very likely to approach Saiki that way to get around all the tsundere bullshit lol.

OKAY, now for the third leg of the triangle lol, Aiura and Akechi!!

(couldn't find an anime gif of this moment which is SO SAD)

Let's be real, Akechi and Aiura only share 5 moments on screen: the intro with all the chibis, when Aiura checks out his aura, when Aiura & Toritsuka kidnap him, the competition to find Saiki's hanky, and Akechi pestering Aiura about dress code violations in the every-character-appears episode. And 3 of those scenes are from the same chapter lmao.

Actually I think this ⬆️ scene is kinda cute because Akechi's teasing Aiura lol, I think he's being friendly in his little freak way <3

HOWEVER, if shipping was only about what we saw on screen, then it would be way more boring. So let's think about it!

Aiura and Akechi actually share a lot of similarities: they're both extroverts, they're both incomprehensible, they are both almost immune to lies, they have both have a drive to help other people including strangers, and they're both seeking someone who will love and understand them as they are.

They would just make a really great fit! Akechi could help with Aiura's fortune-telling by prompting better questions for her to ask, and Aiura might actually make Akechi's mystery-solving TOO easy, so she probably holds back on that one lol. Akechi would throw himself wholeheartedly into working against a death mark on a stranger.

They're so fun to think about too because neither of them is embarrassed easily at all and they're both completely in touch with their own feelings so they are going to be SO lovey-dovey, no matter how cringe it seems on the outside lmao.

Akechi seems like he'd love doing traditional courtship if given half the chance, and Aiura seems like she's mostly had one-night-stand kind of situations until now, so what a perfect opportunity to indulge! What a change for Aiura to date someone who respects her and isn't just after her body! What a change for Akechi to date someone who actually wants to hear what he has to say and isn't put off by his frankness around taboo topics!

They'd pick up phrases from each other and develop so many ridiculous in-jokes that become their own sort of language, which makes them both even more incomprehensible.

We do also run into the allosexual x asexual problem here but Akechi is so unbothered by bodily functions and so quick to find compromises and enrichment that I genuinely think he'd kind of turn that into a game lmao.

And I think Akechi would be down to start a family and give his kid(s) the kind of loving home he never really got to enjoy with his parents' ongoing domestic turmoil. And their kid(s) would be sooooooooo incomprehensible, bless. 🙏🏾 Raised by 1.5 psychic parents and sprinkling both terminally online lingo and academia-level terminology into their speech from day 1. Imagine...

So Aikechi definitely gets the A+ on making sense and being compelling here!

Which FINALLY brings us back around to the main question... Does Aiura x Saiki x Akechi make sense, and is it compelling?

Well, obviously I think so, since I've posted so much about it lol.

I think the main question for the viability of this ship is whether Saiki would be comfortable with polyamory, since Aiura and Akechi are unconcerned enough with social norms that they'd probably have no problem with it.

After some time getting used to the thought that he will never have the veneer of normal he's always wanted to project and that the pleasures of living authentically far outweigh the pains of being different, I think Saiki would actually love having his best friends as lovers and not having to choose only one person.

After all, most of his struggle is about lack of connection and his alienation from humanity. Well, here are Akechi and Aiura, who respectively mirror his lonely childhood and growing up with uncontrollable powers. They're both clever enough to see through his tsundere bullshit, they're both happy and able to help him with his powers & duties to save others, and they will both stand up to him if he's wrong or letting something slide to avoid conflict.

They're both perfect for him! And Akechi and Aiura would be much happier sharing him than trying to make him choose between them since they also get along so well. And let's be real, Saiki definitely deserves to be loved by the two people who know him the best. 💜

There's also a lot of story potential for how this ends up happening. In Extra Love Stories of Psychics, Saikechi and Saiura are basically happening in parallel and the Aikechi will close in the loop in a few chapters. But in Didn't see this one coming, I wanted to focus on Aikechi, so they get together and are basically ready for Saiki to finish his character growth and join whenever lmao.

You could also have them as like a hero team of lovers if you want more action-y plots, though tbh it's really hard to come up with situations they wouldn't immediately solve lol rip.

Another nice thing about Aiura, Akechi and Saiki being together is that Aiura and Akechi get a chance to help each other overcome some of Saiki's limitations, and the stuff they can't work around, Akechi and Aiura can do together.

An easy example is hand-holding. Changing Saiki's gloves to another texture is all well and good but sometimes you want to touch skin to skin, and it's much more overwhelming than calming for Saiki to do that. Akechi and Aiura can hold each other's hands without gloves though, and while it's not the same as holding Saiki's, it helps a lot to fulfill that desire.

Also, it's almost impossible for Aiura to surprise Saiki because he can read her thoughts, but while Akechi can probably figure out that she's planning something in general, she would have a much easier time surprising him. And similarly, since Saiki can't properly read Akechi's mind and doesn't have too much emotional intelligence, Akechi has to openly communicate his needs with Saiki all the time, which isn't a problem for him. But it's really nice when Aiura can tell from his aura or from her own emotional intelligence what Akechi wants/needs without having to explain himself. And even if Saiki can literally hear Aiura's thoughts, Akechi is still better at responding to her feelings because he's not tsundere and he actually understands feelings and what to do about them.

Additionally, Aiura has said she wants to be a mother, and while Saiki's affection for kids indicates to me that he wouldn't mind having kids, I think that he would be VERY opposed to passing on his genes due to how much trouble his powers have caused him. And Aiura's genes also are probably loaded with psychic powers! But if Akechi is there, then he can knock up Aiura no problem since he doesn't seem to have any psychic powers, and then the three of them can have their own family <3 Plus all the shenanigans that comes with having 2.5 psychics (and maybe more!) under one roof!

In conclusion, they're perfect, your honor!!

Also I probably should've been writing more fic of them instead of writing this novel XD XD

Thanks for the ask!!

[deafeningfanlight23]

REAL TALK 😭

BRO, CAN SOMEONE TELL ME WHAT THE F*CK IS GOING ON IN THE TSAMS FANDOM??? 😭

DO SOME OF Y'ALL, ONLY SOME DON'T TWIST MY WORDS OR I'M GONNA TWIST YOU 😀 (/j!!), NOT REMEMBER THAT THIS IS ALL FICTION?? THAT THIS IS NOT REAL, JUST A GOOD SHOW ON A PLATFORM THAT EXISTS ON THE INTERNET??? YES, I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS SHOW BUT, LIKE, I STILL LIKE REALITY, TAKE BREAKS, HANG OUT WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY ESPECIALLY AND JUST LIVE MY LIFE, AND DON'T WANNA WASTE MY LIFE SITTING IN MY ROOM WITHOUT ANY GOOD REASON AND JUST SENDING HATE TO PEOPLE THAT I DON'T EVEN KNOW JUST BECAUSE THEY DON'T LIKE SOME ARC OR SOME F*CKING FICTIONAL CHARACTER THAT LITERALLY DOESN'T EXIST?? 😭🙏 DO SOME OF YOU NOT HAVE HOBBIES, LIKE HOW ABOUT LITERALLY COOKING SOME FOOD INSTEAD OF THINKING YOU ARE SOME CHOSEN HERO BUT IN REALITY YOU COOK SO BADLY THAT GORDOM RAMSEY FAINTS AND THE KITCHEN IS ON FIRE??? 😐 CUZ NAH, YOU'RE NOT A HERO BY LITERALLY DAMAGING SOMEONE'S HEALTH, THAT'S SOME FUNKY WORLD CALLED CYBERBULLYING MY CHILDREN WHICH CAN DESTROY LIVES AND LEAD TO DEPRESSION AND NO IT'S NOT AS GIRLY AS TIKTOK MAKES IT SEEM TO BE 😍 Like for example I know I expressed my ✨complicated✨ relationship with Nexus BUT LIKE THE THING IS: I JUST DON'T LIKE HIS PERSONALITY AND DIDN'T SAY TO SOMEONE THEY SHOULD DIE JUST CUZ THEY LIKE HIM! IT'S SUBJECTIVE :'D AND SO SHOULD IT BE! You can express your opinions CUZ FREEDOM, BUT LIKE Y'ALL FREEDOM DOESN'T MEAN YOU CAN SEND DEATH THREATS??? 😶 THAT'S WHERE THE FREEDOM STOPS FOR ME, IDC WHAT Y'ALL THINK CUZ FREEDOM IS ONLY GOOD AS LONG AS NO ONE'S HARMED 😭 AND SOME EXPLOIT THIS FREEDOM! SOME OF Y'ALL CAN'T REALIZE THAT THO AND USE IT AS AN EXCUSE 😐 Tbh, I have narcisstic tendencies (Yes I'm a real life anime villain ✨💃 /j) cuz I'm not perfect y'all, I KNOW SHOCKING (Joke :D), BUT SERIOUSLY I'M SHOCKED BY HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE SO ENTITLED LIKE IT'S BLOWING MY MIND AND THROWING IT INTO SPACE???😭 ARE 90% OF THIS FANDOM COCOMELON VIEWERS OR WHY ARE THEY ACTING LIKE INFANTS??? 😭 Cuz as Invisible Davis said that and SPIT THE FACTS AND MADE A DISSTRACK (Damn I AM A RAPPER XD): Y'ALL, WE ARE JUST WATCHING THE SHOW! THEY DON'T OWE US ANYTHING AND VICE VERCA! MIC DROP! WE DON'T KNOW THESE PEOPLE AND CAN'T JUDGE HOW THEY ARE IN REAL LIFE 😭

And different topic, and yes, it may sound harsh, BUT THERE 👏 DOES 👏 NOT 👏 EXIST 👏 A 👏 FRIENDSHIP 👏 BETWEEN 👏 MOST OF US 👏 AND 👏 THE 👏 VAs! And yes, I say most of us because I don't know ALL of you! And yes, the community and the VAs interact with each other, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN WE ARE HOMIES WTF?? 😭 A FRIENDSHIP INCLUDES THAT BOTH PEOPLE WITHIN MENTIONED FRIENDSHIP KNOW EACH OTHER BUT EVEN IF WE KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT THEM, THEY DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MOST OF US 😭 NO, WE AREN'T BESTIES WITH THEM, AND WE MUST ACCEPT THIS FACT! BECAUSE SOME OF YOU ARE SO PARASOCIAL IT'S INSANE ARE WE IN THE BTS FANDOM??? (/j!)😭 Of course, we should have a healthy relationship or something like that, that's cool, BUT Y'ALL IT'S STILL A RELATIONSHIP BUILT UPON THE TWO ROLES OF CONSUMERS AND PROVIDERS, AND WE ARE THE ONES CONSUMING THE SHOW AND THEY ARE THE ONES PROVIDING THE SHOW 😭 Seriously, LIKE I DON'T SEE THE HUMAN EVOLUTION, I SOMETIMES THINK WE ARE STUCK IN THE STONE AGE AND WE'RE ALL JUST SMALL BABIES FRESH OUT OF THE WOMB WHO PLAY ADULTS😭🙏

LIKE Y'ALL EDUCATION SYSTEM FAILED SOME OF US 😐

But again, IT'S NOT DIRECTED TO ALL OF YOU! Some of y'all are the sweetest people and so nice and I'm sending fist-bumps to y'all, BUT SOME OF Y'ALL SHOULD REALLY LISTEN TO WHAT I JUST SAID 😃✋

[accio-victuuri]

CPN : the birth of “weiba” ( weifen wangba ) 😂

even while writing this, i’m still not entirely sure how people are seeing the data about these newcomers. i’m thinking it functions like any other online groups like a super topic. you can see which specific accounts have recently joined.

if you’re looking at the bjyx st, it’s pretty lively and people are celebrating because of the rapid increase in members ever since last night. around 2PM i think it’s 6k++ and then right now i checked again, it’s 9k+. that’s a lot, considering these two have not interacted publicly for so long. maybe we will finally cross the 4 million mark before the year ends. 🫶🏼

so what’s all this talk about “weiba”?

it’s a combination of weifen ( what we call solo fans ) and wangba ( us turtles ) . the conversation is around these wfs joining the ST overnight. so much so that you see people posting a meme ( taken from ome and only )!about a moto & shrimps housewarming 😂😂😂

This is actually not new, the whole concept of a wf being cpf friendly. There are spaces like douyin where these 3 groups co-exist and will sometimes tease each other. It’s not always toxic, but oftentimes it is. There were a few times before too when a particularly strong cpn comes out and turtles screenshot the reactions of wfs who are confused and feel like bjyx may be true.

Now what’s the “cpn” that probably sent them over the edge?

I’ve talked a bit about it here and it’s related to XZ’s work schedule change.

For the longest time, he was going to work in Condor Heroes early in the day. Then in 7/26, it was bit late but this could only be slightly affected by WYB’s condition. Remember that YBO announced that WYB is sick in the evening of 25th and they were in Hunan ( based on the IP ). We are not sure if Yibo is also there or just the staff but the thought is he did intend to come. In the 26th, WYB probably came back to Beijing a bit later or if he was already in BJ, ZZ can’t change his schedule. Then on the 27th, ZZ’s schedule is way later than his usual. Same with the 28th. These days we CPN that ZZ spent time with sick WYB before going to work. Then on 7/29, ZZ goes back the his old schedule and WYB is the same.

An additional speculation here is the photo going around of ZZ giving out drinks to Condor Heroes cast and crew. This is not something new. We know ZZ loves to treat the crew. However, this time, we interpret this as him giving his “apologies” cause he had to come in to work later than usual for the past days. ☕️

That’s it everyone! tbh, I don’t care if wfs cross over to being turtles or what. I still believe in staying in our own lanes and treating each other with respect. Just enjoy our own corner/s fandoms. ✌🏼

PS: Another probable reason for some newcomers are those who watched One and Only, then looked into WYB. 🫶🏼

-END.

[hermiola]

Writer's Meme, 2024 Edition

I've been tagged by @turquoisedata 💜

-------------------------

How many works do you have on ao3?

14. 6 Good Omens + 8 MCU, but we have to go back to 2014 and 2016 for those. I also used to publish on an Italian fanfiction archive where I have 70 more fics (I went back to check and count them after approximately two thousand years and HOLY SHIT, I didn't remember them being so many! My first fic is more than 20 years old WTF).

What’s your total word count?

150.000 words on AO3. But I'm guessing it's waaay higher than that (the Italian archive doesn't show the word count 🥲).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

My GO fics have the most kudos (given the popularity of the fandom + the fact that they're written in English and not in Italian). I have 6, so the top 5 is basically all of them:

Take a Little Love From Me (Pretty Woman AU)

Final Breakthrough (Now!) (Post-Season 2 Fix-It)

Crazy Little Thing (Called Love) (Non-S2-complying silliness)

When Hell Freezes Over (Human AU with magician!Crowley and critic!Aziraphale)

Let There Be Rock (First meeting after 1967)

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

I do! I don't get that many, so it's not overwhelming, and I just like to respond. As I said somewhere else, my experience in the GO fandom has been mostly a solitary one (recently not so much though!) so I just like to interact whenever I can.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I'm going to consider only the GO ones because I feel like the others have been written by another me entirely (also I'm not sure I even remember them).

So it's definitely Let There Be Rock.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I'd say all of them, but Take a Little Love From has a proper epilogue and everything. I guess their happiness has more space there than elsewhere.

Do you write crossovers?

I have in the past, but not anymore.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not that I know of.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not really. I LOOOOVE reading smut (especially in those chonky slow burn fics), but I can't bring myself to write explicit smut for some reason. I love describing the tension and the heat of the moment (I love UST so much I'm going to marry it tbh - like nothing makes me happier/hornier than two people who want to fuck each other but can't for some reason - am I edging myself? IDK) but when it comes to my own writing I feel like spelling out the details just ruins the moment. I do think it's my ace showing in some way. But, anyway, I read the filthiest filth so this definitely doesn't apply to reading. And who knows, maybe one day I'll try! I'm not ruling anything out.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don't think so?

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, but I used to translate HP fics back in the day (from English to Italian). We're talking 20 years ago. And it's funny when you think about it, because I translate novels for work now 🤣

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Yes, always back in the day with HP. I'm still friends IRL with the girl I wrote them with (we actually met because of HP) (this is as good a time as any to say FUCK YOU JKR).

What's your all-time favourite ship?

This depends on the hyper-fixation of the moment. I cannot multitask with my OTPs. If I get obsessed with a new one, I retire the previous one. Like I could split my life into different time periods just based on my OTPs. Ron/Hermione has been my personality for YEARSSSS, but now I can barely think about HP without cringing. Another BIG ONE was Clint/Natasha from the MCU (which explains my look here on Tumblr), but the MCU as a whole has gone a bit stale for me (with few exceptions). And now it's all about Crowley/Aziraphale - it's so bad I had to unretire from fanfiction writing after almost 10 years LOL.

(I like many other ships but not to the point of *obsession*).

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

The only one I can think of is a Clintasha Actors AU, but I don't think I have it anymore, and I wouldn't finish it even if I had.

What are your writing strengths?

Dialogues and banter are my favourite things to write, and I think it shows.

What are your writing weaknesses?

English is not my first language, so my writing lacks variety I think. I feel like I have always the same phrases stuck in my head, so it's probably kind of repetitive, especially when compared to some of the fics I read. (But when I started writing my first GO fic in English I wasn't even sure I could *actually* do it, so I'm proud of myself either way!).

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it's okay! I personally would ask a native speaker to help me (if possible) instead of going the Google Translate route. Being Italian and watching/reading almost exclusively in English I know how silly it sounds when the characters start speaking your language and they're saying nonsense (but no harm done even in this case, imo, especially in fanfics. In movies, though, it's just lazy!).

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

HP, back in 2004 (welp).

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

None, thankfully. If I'm writing fanfic it means I'm in the late stage of hyperfixation and I don't wish that on myself if I can help it. Like I used to read 50+ books a year before GO S2. It's bad!!!

What's your favourite fic you've written?

Take a Little Love From Me mainly because it's the one I've spent more time with.

Tagging some people if they feel like doing it (but no pressure at all!): @beerok23 - @sabotage-on-mercury - @gaiaseyes451 - @leviosally

[everwalldigan]

Anon is just misconstruing people taking the fact that dick wasn’t around a lot during Jason’s run as robin and extrapolating that jason had a reason to be bitter about it as maligning dick. NeverMind the way dick fans love to give him angst with the “my mom gave me robin” thing even though that’s like a thing that got added one time, and dick gave Jason robin in a box their first interaction post-crisis. And that that box was deliberately drawn exactly like and intended to evoke when dick gave Jason robin in a box pre-crisis, when Jason was about to debut his own costume and persona and dick went out of his way to ask Jason to be robin. Like okay either dick didn’t have any resentment that could be picked up on, voiced or not, about his mom giving him robin and Jason stealing it, or you’re making your fave a boring 20something who beatifically suffered in perfect silence while a teen trampled on the memory of their dead mom. Which is it.

Like there are out of universe reasons dick wasn’t around when Jason was robin, Jason only existed as robin so that dick could spend all his time with the Teen Titans and Batman could still have a robin, so Nw didn’t cross over into Batman and Robin much, he did it quite a few times after Jason died before Tim came, and Jason’s post crisis robin run was pretty short so there wasn’t time because a lot of the time happened in time skips, but it doesn’t change the fact that dick mentored Tim and wasn’t there for Jason, and that Jason was kept by Batmans side so usually in Gotham, occasionally with Batman when he was doing justice league stuff, joining the Teen Titans once to help when dick was in trouble, doesn’t compare to Tim’s heavy involvement with YJ and TT. Dick fans are just soooo sensitive they can’t handle someone looking at those canon dynamics and considering their possible emotional impact, justified or not, and they especially can’t handle a what-if that explores how it would be if dick were mean. Like if there people hate fandom and alternate characterizations so much they should just log off or stay out of the tag, and never read else-worlds either 🙄🙄🙄

Tbh (as a dick fan myself, I came into the fandom and imprinted on him like a baby duck) I think dick had all the reason to be a bitch to Bruce and by extension cold/standoffish to Jason. Is it a shitty thing to do that to a kid who just wanted to have a home? Yes it is but 1. I don’t think dick was really intending to hurt Jason, I think he was so hurt and angry by Bruce’s actions that he didn’t really think about the position Jason was in. And 2. I think he’s allowed to be flawed and that doesn’t take away from his character at all

This is exactly why I feel intimidated when trying to delve into the comics cause it’s like, whatever iteration you pick you’re never right and there’s always someone who’s gonna say “well I think that iteration is bad, the one I like is more true to the character” if that makes sense. Like I like the concept of Robin being smth dick created with the memories of his parents to help people while making his family’s colours a symbol of hope. And with that concept comes the hurt of being essentially fired from the position you created and then finding out your mentor had just handed over that symbol to someone he basically just met. Like I think dick obviously does have regrets with the way he treated Jason and I think that guilt would manifest into him investing more into a relationship with Tim and not letting history repeat itself.

But then again, I’m still quite new to the fandom which is why I mostly keep out of discussions and stay with silly parodies/scenarios so if I misconstrued any of the characters in a major way… my bad

[sarawritestories]

do you like the way cassian was in acosf? i feel like sjm wrote him to be really....idk just different compared to how he was in acowar and acomaf.

Ahhhh my favorite topic! Cassian 😍

Also my not so favorite topic SJM Character assassinations 😒

I also hope you are prepared for the long rant I'm about to go on sorryyyyyyy.

Let's get into it: Did I like Cassian in ACOSF?

Yes for the following reasons:

-We learned more about his Love Language

-His Compassion for his friends

-Any moment that he was really soft with Nesta (Despite what a lot of the people in the fandom believe those moments are on the page).

HOWEVER MY ANSWER IS ALSO NO.

ACOMAF Cassian would absolutely Obliterate ACOSF Cassian.

Why? Good question I'd love to answer.

Cassian in ACOMAF and ACOWAR always was one to stand up to not only people who insulted Feyre her sisters. But he knew when Rhys needed to get knocked down a peg and be more humble. So him just being subservient to Rhys in ACOSF in front of Nesta (Because despite what people say he does defend her just not in Rhysand way.)

Also SJM played into the fandom fan service of dumbing him down to a brute (its subtle but its there.) LIKE THIS MAN IS A GENERAL HE HAS WON COUNTLESS BATTLES THANK TO HIS STRATEGIES. But instead of having this sweet story of Nesta showing him how to be a courtier; she has Rhys throw him to the wolves (Eris) to make him a babbling idiot WHICH HE"S NOT.

You would have had a better story if Nesta was showing him how to do these things OR A cute Courtier X Bodyguard story line had she let Nesta do what she had trained her whole life to do and Cassian being there to keep her safe.

ACOMAF Cassian is emotionally mature, he's playful and knows how to lighten a mood but he's compassionate when it comes to Feyre and her emotional stability. In the bonus chapter, he's enraged someone hurt Nesta enough to cause her to flinch at his touch wanting to protect her. ACOSF he has the emotional capacity of a 12 year old boy and it sucks.

Cassian's character was watered down in ACOSF with just enough flashes of his old self that it keeps you seated but I wanted better for him and Nesta too tbh. She never wanted to be a warrior and I love that she found friends and got healing but the story could have been told differently and her love story with Cassian should have gone differently and both deserve to have more soft moments with each other.

Also his interactions with Mor were weird and felt kind of forced. I didn't like that.

Cassian seemed to be there for a plot device and she didn't give a shit about his character development and in the process whittled him down to what drew me to him the minute I met him in ACOMAF.

All the while deciding she was going to destroy every fucking character in that series in the process.

You will never make me hate Cassian even though I do agree he is very off in ACOSF he does have some shining moments in there that still makes me metaphorically weak in the knees for him. But I know just by how he was handling Nesta alone like a sex crazed boy. ACOMAF Cassian would have decimated ACOSF Cassian.

Thanks for coming to my rant.