#this became fandom central lol

[zvezdacito]

Tbh I think a lot of people downplay the stakes Malleus is in that makes him overblot as just surface level loneliness by itself and that's why they think his overblot is unwarranted/annoying compared to the other six. It makes sense he jumps to such drastic measures to avoid facing whatever comes next because whatever it is will last not just a few years but literally a millennium + either way because of multiple systemic reasons he knows he's not just gonna be able to connect with a bunch of new people/explore a bunch of new experiences to make up for it.

Compared to other overblotters, it seems no matter what course of action Malleus will end up in a bad ending since he's a species seemingly among the few left of his kind while also being biologically predisposed to outliving everyone. It's as if he can never have a happy ending as long as he's himself, or that as a king (and symbolic "lord of all villains") his happiness will only come at the cost of others'.

I feel like a lot of people also give him the entire blame of his failures to connect properly with his peers. When even before they knew about his impulsivity or lack of cognitive empathy people were already jumping to conclusions about him. (Said mindsets came about from internalizing the depersonalization he was raised with, he's the sole heir of a country battered by colonization who place very high expectations on him to be a symbol of hope for them again after all)

Assuming the worse because of his powers, the reputation that came from it, and because of (the once again systemic issue) humans and people outside the Briar Valley barely knowing anything about/only having stereotypical rumors to go off the nocturnal fae who closed themselves off to try and stop humans from invading them more💀

So yeah givevn all of this Malleus was a ticking time bomb and even then he was about to just stand down and put his own feelings aside until he became accidentally convinced there was a way that didn't have to exclude him. It's an unfortunate clash of circumstances between different people and that's what TWST is all about. So yeah idk just kinda baffling some people are unironically out there saying things like "Malleus should've just held himself together for one night that's so selfish" when it's kinda made extremely clear by the story there's way more leading to the characters' making choices than that

From an outside point of view as the audience of course there are obvious steps Malleus could take to make the most out of what he has and to not inadvertently be a prick to others, but it pretty obvious why in his shoes it's not really feasible rn lol. Other than these things I could think of at the top of my head, a lot of the things people single him out as especially selfish or unreasonable for are things the other overblotters and characters in general also do lol.

> Like the class dynamics at play? NRC is literally rich boy central many characters express some kind of class privelege

> Not receiving consequences for his actions? This is a staple twst writing flaw for all its stories in general, most overblotters have gotten a slap on the wrist/their actions relatively covered up by the end. And Fellow legit just walks away from an undisclosed time of human trafficking like it was no big deal😭

Ironically Malleus will probably be the first overblotter to not have his actions hidden to only a select circle of people and receive severe repercussions for it because someone like him "should've been above that".

But yeah sometimes I feel like the extent of how some factors in Malleus's background, upbringing and environment determine his way of thinking and why he thinks he needs to do certain things is underestimated by the fandom and only the surface level of what he's doing is focused on which results in some people talking about his character and his flaws in a very dismissive way idk

[yangkitties]

bros before hoes ✰ profiles: NEXUS

NEXUS is a 7 member group under PLEDIS. NEXUS stands for how they are the connecting point between now and the future. NEXUS is also word play on the phrase ‘next us’ to show that they are the future, and the next big thing. Their fandom name is 'AXIS', signifying that their fans are their central point which allow NEXUS to continue being who they are!

park y/n: 02, nexus’s mood maker. OBSESSED with park sunghoon since the age of 11 when they saw him on tv for the first time, he's basically half their personality. makes terrible decisions and learns from them the hard way. genuinely just a little goof trying to survive.

bang chan: 97, nexus’s oldest. the best leader anyone could have asked for, but runs the practice room like the military. gives the best hugs and is doing his best to make sure his group stays out of trouble.

kim sunwoo: 00, nexus’s resident sassy boy. likes to stir shit up even though he’s one of the oldest. actually just a little bit of a loser who likes anime too much. has weird friends. 

lee chaeryeong: 01, nexus’s sweetheart. so sweet. just so nice and lovely and silly. everyone loves her and treats her like a little princess, even though she’s one of their oldest. deserves everything in the world and more !!

lee jooyeon: 02, nexus’s silly goose. likes to play the guitar and is generally very nice. super supportive and cheerful, has the voice of an angel. actually just the sweetest guy ever.

fukutomi tsuki: 02, nexus’s visual. loves loves LOVES making new friends. an absolute queen, and has been friends with y/n since both of them became trainees. has known y/n the longest. friend’s with enhypen’s jungwon. 

oh haewon: 03, nexus’s maknae. funny and savage as FUCK, loves hanging out with her members. she brings balance to the group and is slightly too chronically online for her own good.

prev | m.list | next

synopsis > with the help of fukutomi tsuki, park y/n finally gains the courage to face their long time crush, the one and only, park sunghoon. park sunghoon thinks it's love at first sight when he sees her. paired up as the new mcs of music bank, shenanigans ensue when y/n learns about sunghoon's crush...

note: i had so much fun coming up with the group concept and stuff lol

©️ yangkitties 2024 do not copy, plagiarise, or repost

[orlissa]

Have you always known you want to be a literary translator?

Lol, no.

I think I've told this story here before, but here it goes, like, from the very beginning.

Ever since I can remember, I've always had a knack for storytelling - I actually had a short story published when I was 11 -, and got into fanfic at 12. Back then, it was only in Hungarian, and at the point like 99% of Hungarian fanfics were Harry Potter. It was like other fandoms didn't exist.

But a year or two later I got into a fandom (X-Men: Evolution) that very little Hungarian following (well, I remember there being a few fics, but really just a few and not the best), so I found myself having to venture to English sites - and what happened is that my "good for school" English got... pretty good. By the time I was 15, I was reading novels in English and trying my hand in writing fics in English (I was shameless, too. I lived in a dorm during my high school years, and I remember I was the only member of an English club there, so I got the teacher holding the club to devote it to editing my fics. Something I would definitely not have the guts to do today). In the next few years, I pretty much transitioned to English fandom places.

Then the summer I turned 17 - that was the age of Twilight, and everything was about vampires - I found a book series that spoke to me: it had vampires and a touch of Wicca, and the main character, at least it was prominently displayed in the blurb, was struggling with Math and paralell parking. My weakest subject was Math and I was struggling to get my license at the time - this book spoke to me. Looking back, the series wasn't... great, but at the time it really hooked me. I read the first four books of the series that summer.

As it happened, when I was reading the first book, it's Hungarian edition was already in the works, coming out in that September. And the publisher had a really good marketing manager at the time, who saw to it that the series had an online forum for the fans. I found this forum maybe a week after it launched, and being my shy and and not at all attention seeking self (*sarcasm*) I pretty soon became a central figure there - so much so that the aforementioned marketing manager soon sought me out and offered me an admin position there.

(It was such a great community, too. We did launch parties, and almost had a camp, which then was thwarted the last minute by the weather. I still have friends from there.)

Anyway, so the forum flourished, books in the series were steadily coming out in Hungarian, and we were having fun. Christmas came, and me being me, I wrote a little fic for my friends on the forum, as a gift (I guess I ended up translating it to English, and I think it's still on my old ff.net account). And the forum being an official one run by the publisher, my little fic got to the marketing manager, who sent it to the owner of the company and the translator of the series. And the translator loved it - like it was just fluffy piece, and apparently he said that it was "better than the original" (which is not a big deal, because, yeah, looking back the series wasn't really quality). I took the praise blushing.

A few months went by and the publication process for the fourth book in the series went underway - only they couldn't contact the person who did the editing of the previous books (later it turned out that they died, but no-one knew thaty yet). And they needed an editor ASAP.

That's when the translator, already a veteran in the business, said that hey, they could try me out. So they offered me a job - I was 17, still in high school, and I had an Adult Job, with actual Adult People. I was fucking proud of myself.

And then we did... 4 or 5 books like that. He translated, I edited. Then when I was nearing my high school graduation and we were heading towards the next book, the translator said that he didn't feel like translating this series anymore, but he would be okay with me translating and him editing. And, well, that's what happened. Like, literally I had my high school leaving exams one week, and was working on the translation the next.

He ended up recommending me to some other publishers as well (I work for neither today, either because they've gone defunct or because I wasn't satisfied with the way I was being treated), and then I was just... there. I had references, and I had connections, and I had a job I could do whenever and wherever I wanted while working on my degree. It definitely beat fast food.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job most of the time, and I think I'm good at it (i just heard it back last week that some bloggers were praising my work at some event), but it was never planned and me being where I am today is absolutely due to some events that were mostly out of my hands.

[chiisana-sukima]

follow up to the question you just answered (tho I'm a different anon), when did you first get into fandom? what was it like back in the day?

I read what I would now consider my first fic when I was thirteen. It was split into two traditionally published Star Trek novels, but they were whumptastic, barely sanitized Spirk (no sex, but omg the "Ill die for you, give up everything for you, endure horrible torture, etc" vibes were off the charts). And while I can't say they awakened something in me per se--because I had already read a bunch of other raunchy queer scifi by other authors--they were certainly my first taste of transformative works, and I've been in fandom on and off since I became old enough to drive to cons a few years later.

Why is that romulan chick there when this is sanitized gay porn? No idea, its been years since I read these.

I went to Star Trek cons when I was in my twenties and still know some of the con runners from that time. There were, to put it bluntly, a lot of raves and a lot of sex lol. It was a more open time period in some ways, or at least it was open enough my whole friend group basically all banged.

Otoh though, there wasn't nearly as much language to think and talk about identity. I think The Youth TM have really stepped up around issues of gender and sexuality in ways that are net huge positives, including for older queers who can now identify ourselves in ways that may always have been central to us, but which we didnt have language to express (I still call myself bi and queer but can now also say I'm nonbinary/genderqueer and aro--both of which I have been for as long as I can remember but only have words to discuss now). We banged a lot back then (which was great! no regrets!) but didn't know ourselves very well.

I didn't become what I'd call active in fandom on a regular basis though until the 1990s. I was a manga translator in the late nineties/early 2000s and ran a small scanlation team. There wasn't as much Discourse about what kinds of content are acceptable then as there is now, but Discourse springs eternal, so there were a bunch of other kinds of wank instead. My team was international, and we ended up splitting over a weird mix of factors that included one of the members being incredibly racist due to childhood trauma during the Yugoslav wars, my own anxiety over customs opening all my packages from Japan, and an attempt by a traditional publishing company to co-opt all the scanlators as contractors for shit wages and no benefits.

I took a long break and then came back into fandom on the fic reading/writing side in 2015, and I love it here a lot. AO3 is the best thing since sliced bread. Even though I worry about purity wank and the panopticon and how that's all affecting people growing up now, I think overall fandom is a better place for the togetherness that the internet has bred. It's much more accessible now compared to when I was young, and it's easier to find your own little tribe of weirdos who match your freak pretty exactly.

[maoam]

The Atlas fandom is increasingly surpassing itself by showing how unbearable they can be, I thought that the rise in popularity of the pandemic had made the fandom unbearable but the mediocre Netflix adaptation is reaching a new level. Among the worshipers of the Fire Nation for their uwu baby zuko (I have no problem with zuko but his fandom ruined the character for me), the changes in central parts of the characters and the lifelong fight of zutara wanting to be canon in some reality. Besides, the fandom became annoyed by the war ships but then a new crackship appeared with Zuko and Sokka and makes them bisexual, of course to do this Suki is completely erased from existence and they make Sokka the most heterosexual character in the series to date Zuko.

I'm not a big fan of Atla fandom either. They treat the series as FLAWLESS and giving it any criticism is usually met with 'YOU DIDN'T GET IT'. Unless they are zutarians who think the series' biggest issue was that Zuko and Katara didn't get together. Lol.

However I will stand by the statement that despite its flaws Atla is miles better than Lok. Lok literally destroyed the mythos of Atla and further Americanized the setting and it just wasn't good. While Atla has some simplified concepts, at least those concepts are consistent and the show has some meaningful things and relationships in it. In Lok the relationships alone just suck. The only reason Lok even gets any clout these days is because they made a popular tumblr crack ship canon in the last 3 minutes (without developing it or fixing the things that made even the two's friendship iffy and not believable to me). But someone else made a comic about it after the series was over that retconned a bunch of stuff so it's okay apparently.

I don't get the Zuko and Sokka ship either. But it's hilarious to watch Zuko/Sokka and Zuko/Katara shippers fight each other, especially when the latter calls the former misogynist. Like neither of you is that good, chill out... And yes, some Zuko stans are really annoying, especially when they hate on Aang.

I'm not gonna watch the live action series anyway, I just don't like this mindset nowadays that every cartoon has to be made into live action. Cartoon is respectable media in itself, it doesn't need live action.

[lover-of-mine]

Hi! This is long, but just some Inside Baseball-y theorizing/thoughts on LFJ... I don't have any insider info or anything lol but I know a bit about how the business side of the industry works.

So, he would have been brought back as either a recurring guest star or a recurring co-star (co-stars are usually minor characters who basically serve to push other characters to where they need to be, which is probably what he was in S2. Guest stars have a bigger role and are usually a little more central to the story they're being used in). The distinction is a little fluid and can be up for negotiation by your agent (guest stars get paid a higher rate), but I think Tommy lands pretty solidly into recurring guest category for S7, so that's my guess as to what he was contracted as. (The step above that but before main cast is series regular, which is where Karen and Ravi etc fall)

From what we now know, his original arc was only supposed to be 4 episodes, and he was there for Eddie. Then Natalia's actress became unavailable (I think she was doing a play?) and their original plan sort of fell apart, because if Eddie had his gay awakening in 704 and Buck was single (since Natalia wouldn't be there) the rest of whatever they had planned for the season would stop making sense... hence the switch, and imo you can see some traces of the original plan in the version that eventually made it to air.

And then they were renewed for S8-9, which realistically would have been very much up in the air at the time the season was originally being written. They'd just come off the strikes, they were on a new network, they had a shortened season, they were planning a BIG swing by bringing at least one of their long-term characters out of the closet, so I don't think it's a coincidence that the renewal news came in the wake of those eps airing. I think the network was probably waiting to see how they'd do in the ratings once that happened before they decided how to move forward.

So once they were renewed, they decided to slow down the pace of whatever story they had planned since they now had more or less guaranteed time to do it. The back half of S7 was a hasty rewrite and suffered for it – I think that's been made obvious in interviews and just from what you see on-screen lmao

LFJ was probably asked back for a handful of 7B scenes because of the rewrites – most of his "presence" was done without him actually needing to be on-screen. A couple references to him here and there and one or two scenes in an episode, and that was kind of all they needed story-wise to keep Buck busy while Eddie started down his spiral. I don't think his "popularity" or "fanbase" or whatever had much at all to do with him staying longer. BIG fandom pushes can sometimes sway things, but I think people generally overestimate their influence on these kinds of decisions. It ultimately comes down to money and viewership and story needs, and it made sense for him to stay longer than expected, so he stayed.

When it stops making story or business sense to keep him, he'll be gone, which might have already happened if they think he's caused more trouble than he's worth. There's also the possibility that he'll be promoted to a main on SWAT or get booked for something else and become unavailable just like Natalia's actress did. That happens super frequently.

Or maybe not! If they have a plan for the wrap-up of that storyline that requires him to be physically present, or even if they want to keep him around off and on all next season, then he'll probably be back for a couple episodes, but they're definitely not going to be writing full independent storylines for him. If you pay attention, he (and Buck!) stopped being the focus of any of the plotlines as soon as the bulk of that story was resolved (Buck realizing he's bi and coming out to the rest of the team). Whatever their plan, his function is/was to push Buck to where he needs to be for whatever's next in his story, because Buck is the one who's part of the main cast. He's the one who gets storylines written about him.

I agree with a lot of this, really. I say his approval made him stay, but I kinda mean in the sense that Buck being bi was well received and unlike other love interests, he was well received, so keeping him in the background wasn't creating problems as they set up whatever it was they wanted to do with season 8 using the remainder of s7 after the renewal. I don't think his purpose on the narrative is completely done yet, so I do think he could be back to further Buck in whatever way they need him to, because like you said, he exists to push Buck somewhere and they stopped using Buck on his own after he came out and that's definitely not something that's gonna transfer into s8, so whatever plan they have for Buck is probably going to use him. I think the question is if the chaos that's been going on lately makes it worth it to drag out his presence or if they'll choose to get over with it quickly because while he still makes sense narratively, he might be stopping making sense from a business perspective. But we don't know, this is all speculation at this point. There's a chance he's already written off and there's a chance they are planning on keeping him as a presence for longer. We'll have to wait and see I guess. But this is a very detailed view, thank you for sharing it.

[dhampiravidi]

when you dislike the MC of a good series AKA Who Will Die in The Wicked Powers

damn, being petty enough to flip off the MC x canon ship in my (favorite) fandom is really kicking me in the ass--

yeah, basically I can't touch half the TSC stuff on Tumblr bc I'm so anti-Clace...(meanwhile I love literally every other character that's been in every Shadowhunter series)...& they're probably gonna have a wedding + kids in the next books (assuming Jace isn't killed)...

The Wicked Powers is most definitely gonna have the Princes of Hell as the main villains. I feel like Luke, Gwyn, or Izzy will die, since the younger Shadowhunters are supposed to be central & well...look at the couples who will be alive/extant by TWP:

SPOILERS FOR ALL SHADOWHUNTER BOOKS!!

Jace & Clary

Magnus & Alec

Simon & Izzy

Julian & Emma

Kit & Ty

Kieran/Cristina/Mark

Dru & Ash (& maybe Jaime)

Diana & Gwyn

Luke & Jocelyn

Tessa & Jem

(forgive me if I'm missing anyone!)

Jace already died once. Clary had dreams about dying, but those were shown to be visions of Thule. Based on canon events, I think they're Clare's favorite ship. SAFE.

Magnus almost gave himself to Asmodeus in CoHF. Alec almost-ish died saving Magnus in The Eldest Curses. Also, Alec almost died thanks to that poison demon in TMI (the one Magnus saved him from). Malec might end up forced to rule some region of Hell (reason unknown but I think it'll have to do with them beating/destroying Asmodeus). I feel like past events foreshadow Magnus dealing with the unfortunate sides of being a warlock. But he won't die--the "killing your gays" trope might actually save he & Alec.

Simon nearly died when the vampires attacked him (when he was a mundane), then when Valentine bled him pre-Daylighter (then Jace's blood saved him). He "sacrificed" himself to Asmodeus CoHF, in the form of his vampire immortality + memories (which he basically got back later on). Izzy...she's been through a lot psychologically & about as much as I think most Shadowhunters would physically. She lost Max & her dad. But she's a badass (I'm not faulting her for it, either). So I don't think she's safe.

Julian & Emma both lost their parents in horrible ways. Their whole series was about the parabatai curse (which, to me, was conveniently not mentioned in chronologically earlier series...probably because it wasn't invented til TDA was written, lol). They're kinda written to be the leaders of Livvy's Watch. SAFE.

Kit has his whole faerie power reveal shit to explore & he + Ty are some of the major characters in TWP. I'm pretty sure they'll spend the series healing their relationship. SAFE.

Kieran/Cristina/Mark will survive because 1) Kieran as the Unseelie King is an important Shadowhunter ally, 2) they're poly rep in YA, which is rare, and 3) killing one of them off would leave the others to mourn in such a weird way. SAFE.

I love Dru Blackthorn. She's one of the main of TWP, so I think she'll survive, plus tbh I don't think any more Blackthorns will be killed. Ash will probably end up as the Seelie King or as Clace's adopted son, to "redeem" Sebastian in a narrative sense. Jaime's sort of a main for TWP as one of Dru's love interests. SAFE.

Diana & Gwyn aren't main characters (though I like their romance). Diana also is the ONLY transgender person in all the books (unless I missed something). I don't think she'll be killed off. Gwyn might be just because I see the Wild Hunt as an important group in TWP & he might die protecting Diana (narratively, this shows strengthened faerie-Shadowhunter relations, despite the Wild Hunt being unaffiliated with either Court).

Luke & Jocelyn deserve to be endgame, but I could see Luke being killed off as one of those "MC's loved one is killed so the MC goes & avenges them" type of things. I love Luke & Jocelyn as characters, though.

Tessa & Jem deserve to be endgame, arguably, more than any couple. They were the mains in their series, then Jem survived but was sort-of-"lost" when he became a Silent Brother. Then he miraculously became a (mortal) Shadowhunter again when he was burned by heavenly fire, he just left the Clave behind to hang with Tessa (good choice!). Tessa has a baby & she's gonna suffer enough when she outlives Jem. SAFE?

[xiyao-feels]

which is your favourite sword or spiritual weapon?

The obvious answer is Hensheng and, yep, it's Hensheng!

Back then, when Jin GuangYao worked undercover at Wen RuoHan’s side, he had often hidden the sword at his waist, wreathed the sword around his arm to use during critical moments. Although the blade of Hensheng seemed to be soft to the extremity, attacking with lingering motions, it was in reality both sharp and haunting. Once the blade had wrapped around the opposition, Jin GuangYao would apply it with a bizarre spiritual power, and one would quickly be severed into pieces by the sword, despite its tender appearance. Quite a few famous swords had been battered into piles of scrap iron just like this.

(Exiled Rebels translation, ch 50)

Some random free-association thoughts:

- Walking around with this sword is among other things a reminder that he spied on and killed WRH! I think this can sometimes be viewed with suspicion by fandom but it actually seems to be viewed very positively by the cultivation world in the novel. It's part of the legend of Lianfang-zun—in a sense, the first part. Consider the description of LFZ's history WWX gives when he's watching the kids playing:

In these types of games, the head of all cultivators, LianFang-Zun, who was currently the most successful of all, was of course the most popular character. Although his family background was a bit disgraceful, the fact that he later climbed to such a rank was precisely why people respected him. During the Sunshot Campaign, he skillfully worked undercover for the QishanWen Sect, deceiving all of the Wen Sect’s people to a point that a tremendous amount of information were disclosed, yet they knew nothing. After the Sunshot Campaign, with flattery, wit, and countless other methods, he finally became the Chief Cultivator, fully deserving of the title. Such a life could even be considered a legend. If he was playing, he’d also want to try being Jin GuangYao. Choosing this boy to be the leader would very reasonable choice!

(ER, ch 32)

The background's embarassing, and avoided; but the spying is central, and described in positive terms. The next item on the list is becoming Chief Cultivator! There's really no sense here that the spying is shameful. (Though I'm amused WWX doesn't also mention killing WRH, lol.)

Similarly in the four panels about JGY, the first is about him spying on WRH, and the second is him killing him:

Out of all of them the four most famous sections about the current sect leader—Jin GuangYao—were respectively “disclosure”, ���assassination”, “oath”, and “kind austerity”. Of course, the scenes showed how during the Sunshot Campaign Jin GuangYao hid in the QishanWen Sect and reported important information, assassinated the Wen Sect’s leader Wen RuoHan, became sworn brothers with the rest of the Venerated Triad, and rose to the position of Chief Cultivator.

(ER, ch 47)

It's very well-regarded!

- It's interesting that we get the description of Henjun breaking apart other swords where we do, because like five paragraphs later we have this:

Suibian flew out of its sheath and began to battle against Hensheng’s eerie sword glare. Seeing this, shock flashed across Jin GuangYao’s face. He regained his composure at once and nimbly twisted his right wrist. Like a vine, Hensheng wrapped itself around Suibian’s white, straight blade. He immediately let go of it, letting the two swords fight alone.

(ER, ch 50)

And yet he doesn't shatter Suibian. I suspect that although he clearly wasn't expecting WWX like this (shock flashes across his face!) he immediately realizes that he can use Suibian as evidence that WWX is WWX, and therefore Suibian intact is more useful than Suibian shattered. He's so smart 😍

- While there's no doubt that JGY kills people with it, I do think it's interesting that the signature, most famous move is destroying not the person but the sword—that is, destroying the thing that's the sign of the cultivator, this important signal it's necessary to carry, but does not actually hurt the person. Again, I'm sure he's had occasion to shatter someone's sword and then stab them, but it's interesting to me from a narrative perspective!

[doghartzy]

“#wrote a college entrance essay about this once” re: rpf research excuse me WHAT can you elaborate please 😭 (i say as someone who has also written some unhinged essays)

okay in my defense i didn't actually talk about rpf explicitly, but i did write about how one of the big draws of hockey for me was all the minute details and research rabbitholes you could get absorbed in. it's funny to look back on now because i think my understanding of hockey has come a long way, and also i'm kind of a completely different person than i was, lol. i'll put a few sections under the cut just for fun :3

But in late November of my ---- year, I turned on the television to watch a hockey game. It was the Flames and the Senators -- not exactly a nail-biter. I knew what to expect. I’d been to a college hockey game once at the University of North Dakota, and I’d been casually interested. But I certainly didn’t count on the Ottawa Senators setting the starting point of a great epoch of my life. The thing about hockey is that, leaving aside everything else about the sport -- statistics, personality, fanaticism, gameplay -- hockey is fun to watch. It’s fast-paced but easy to follow. All you have to do is keep track of the puck. Stoppages aren’t too common, but if they do happen, it’s probably because a penalty has been called, or because of a scrum, which both lead to more interesting circumstances. In short, hockey held my interest, and outpaced my notoriously short attention span. At least, that was how it started.

apparently i was rly trying to keep that harvard admissions officer on their toes lmao

Hockey culture is an unmitigated disaster. Awash with misogyny, masculine posturing, glorification of violence, and a thriving disrespect for the civil rights of minorities, it’s easy to brush hockey off as another antiquated hold-out of gladiatorial sports. Fans live and die for the blood of it. It’s especially easy to do so as a queer woman, someone who is definitely unwelcome in central hockey circles. It took me about ten minutes to understand that hockey Twitter, at least, was not worth a second of my time. But I hadn’t gotten as far as making it through an entire Senators game just to give up now. And finding other avenues of building community was easier than I thought. The Internet, it turns out, is shockingly versatile. Just as white male hockey fans all tend to congregate in the loud, wide-open spaces of fandom, the rest of us found areas out of view of the mainstream gaze. Within Tumblr tags, Discord groups, and even fanfiction archive forums, the women, hockey fans of color, and even us queers began to find each other. It was easier, then, to know where to start. In short order, hockey turned from something I watched as stress relief after a long school day to something I knew about. The people I talked to were knowledgeable, and the research I did on my own -- as was my wont -- helped substantiate. First it was about the teams, and then, when I had satisfied my knowledge there, the players. The politics. The rules, the statistics, the prospects. The slow stop-start of change initiatives like the Hockey Diversity Alliance. It turns out that hockey is an unquellable fount of things to learn, and it quickly became a way to collect things to know.

it's interesting to look back and see which things i felt it was important to highlight, especially given all the things that have happened in recent years with hockey culture. also please disregard all the identity flashing, i WAS trying to get into college, after all.

i go on to talk a bit about the demographic layout of the nhl & the draw of european leagues, plus why i started learning russian (to read kirill's insta posts), but that's the rpf-related section. if i were to rewrite this essay today it would be a completely different look at the world of hockey and its current landscape, but i'm giving myself some grace for having committed the crime of being 18 and not very smart.

[coralhoneyrose]

for the ask meme!

💥👻🤩🤔

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

Definitely the inability to have same-sex marriage in game. I would love to play the gay awakening mod someday for that very reason. As is, I definitely ignore that aspect of canon in my writing. Crossing my fingers that if they ever decide to re-make Awakening they’d approach things with a more progressive lens.

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

If we’re taking “wildest” to mean least common / not shared by many other members of fandom, it’s probably just Chrom being demisexual since I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone else expressly portray him that way? If we’re taking wildest to mean just like completely out there and off the rails crazy then uhhh…let’s say it’s this one that I definitely didn’t come up with just a second ago, where in the video that plays when you boot up awakening, that scene that LOOKS like it’s Chrom and Sumia on the balcony with Baby Lucina is actually Chrom and Robin and Robin is just wearing a very elaborate hyper-realistic disguise or perhaps was on the other end of that body swap spell from the Henry support. I’d say that constitutes wild adhfdjk

🤩 What led to your interest in the fandom?

For fire emblem in general, it was actually a combination of my partner recommending the series to me and Byleth’s announcement for Smash Ultimate LOL. I played Three Houses first and was totally consumed by it for a year or so before eventually branching out to other entries. My partner had suggested Awakening as the next one I play, and I enjoyed it the first time through but like…a normal amount? I particularly liked Chrom as a character but had played as m!Robin and was bummed the game wouldn’t let me pair them together.

And then almost a year after that I decided to replay as f!Robin because I was curious how it changes the narrative (and particularly the Lucina scenes) if you’re with him. And the story just hit me completely differently that second playthrough. Chrom and Robin’s relationship being such a central focus emphasized the game’s themes in a way that burrowed into my brain and has not relinquished its hold on me since. I started reading fics and looking for fan art, found some excellent and highly influential ones early on, and then became totally consumed by thoughts of the two of them and trying to write my own Chrobin stories. And the rest is history!

🤔Would you ever want to write something canon if you got the opportunity?

Oh gosh, like be a writer for a fire emblem game? My instinct is to say no, but I think a big part of that is that I feel wildly unqualified LOL. In a universe where I had more of the required skill set / background and training though, it would be really cool to try my hand at it! Though I think I’d probably rather write support conversations than like…the actual main narrative for the game

Thank you for the ask! <3

[pumpumdemsugah]

You're one of the best accounts I follow here so the fact that you watched Arcane and liked it is pretty cool, since I also love this series (hoping for you to do tons of spans of Arcane content lol)

About Mel, yeah, it's exactly what you said. People genuinely dislike complex characters despite the fact that they claim to love and want more of them. The things get worse when the characters are women, because the audience just seem to accept two types of female characters: the badass girl whose whole character is about how she can fight but she barely has plot importance, not even a personality. Or the waifu. Their only job is to like the main character and if the male character she's in love with is the one that male audience insert more, this waifu character is treated like the best women ever.

Regarding to Mel, I think she's also targeted by fujoshis since Jayce likes her and they have a relationship. Viktor/Jayce became a highly popular ship in the fandom. I think it isn't more popular than caitvi simply because a big part of Arcane fans are caitvi shippers and their relationship is a central part of the plot.

When people say they want complex characters they want a broody white man. That's it! God forbid you say...hmm idk because that was my reaction to her. She's clearly smart but like the other elite in the city, out of touch about anything beyond her world. Even before we learn more about her, she's presented in a way where it's obvious she's about the cerebral and connections, her backstory just clarifies she is the way she is because she hates violence and war so depends on everything else to her detriment.

What's crazy is it's very common for political characters to have other motivation but these fuckers were diagnosing her with a personality disorder. I've seen so many male characters that are evil and political from the get go of a story and people don't react like this. They don't need a tragic backstory to guess the person that keeps their cards to their chest has motivations that aren't obvious ?? Hello !

I saw a video going through the traits that make a character strong in Arcane is their weakness and hers was manipulation and not political savvy or even persuasiveness. Sorry but when women are called manipulative it makes my skin itch. I feel like male characters only get that treatment If they're slimy as well and are meant to be pathetic

Similar fictional men get praised for their intelligence and being able to read people when they're obviously devious and manipulative but those are woman descriptions

I've also noticed people don't seem to understand how a story works or what character development is. They want everything all at once. She's not the main character, why would we have her backstory before its plot necessary? It wasn't even that people didn't trust her straight away but the intensity of that distrust because did Jayce not jump all in with back room dealings when he realised he had to ? But is he manipulative for that or simply playing the game for the greater good of his technology?

I even saw someone saying they saw a black fan in bits about her. I really think something is wrong with certain types of black fandom people. The whites didn't like her so you're having a melt down? Get a grip.

[fantomette22]

6, 25 about Gehrman

Thank you Jara! :D The asks list

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

Hm very good question 🤔 I wanted to say a lot of things but they are more fanon & headcanons than canon lol (yeah I project a lot hm u_u) So as "real" common thing well,

I have a black hat and red scarfs XD

I like being alone and comfy I supposed, in calm and peace. Smt I'm sad too kinda normal you would said but I wonder when I'm going with my life and if I would be own my own or share it with smn. And I guess I'm can be quite creative and cultivate like him.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

Well at first I was hm very neutral? Curious to know more for sure 🤔 It's not like he's really develop or of any help at first. + a part of the fandom I saw was really adamant and negative towards him for some reason... (and oh boy I knew nothing yet XD)

Now, well he became one of my fav for sure! I very enjoy this character! My interpretation of him make me like him a lot. It's like this and nothing would change that. He's not angel of course but I like the character for many tragic and human aspect. I like imagining how he was in life, what's his story, his interests, his relationships with other characters etc I mena bro is the first hunter! The first to have take weapons to fight beast and teach other! It's not nothing. And well without him no hunter dream and everything he's a central and major charters in story lore.

And I mean his aesthetic is just ✨ and his theme OMG I love it and I feel I can all his life when I listen to it. I could go on for hours but let's keep it simple XD

[imhere-imqueer-ilikedeer]

your trademark (for me at least) is either The Biscuit Incident (more specific and how we became mutuals) and/or Sanders Sides (because its the main fandom we share)

those two things are a central part of Robin lore, aren’t they? lol

[outrunningthedark]

Wasn't the couch theory connected to buddie because of overanalyzing shippers? I like buddie amd read fics but when i watched the seasons before reading fanfics i never really saw them as a ship before i just got into the ship because of a good fic

Want to start off by saying that I got caught up in the hype of "couch theory" during/after 6x01, so when I post about the signs being there re: Buddie not gong canon this season - or maybe ever, with that finale - it's because of what happened from episode two -> onward. Couch theory was a perfect storm of circumstances. Brand new season = brand new story. Buck and Eddie both single at the same time since 4A. Buck confiding in Eddie about how he connects couches to girlfriends. Buck making lasagna not just for himself and Eddie, but Chris, too, showing the audience how the three of them still are their own family unit (in their own way) through everything. Add to that the blessing (and curse, depending on how people look at things) that is Ryan and Oliver natural, subconscious (reminder that Oliver used that word specifically back in 2021) ability to connect on screen, to the point where some people want to believe every single detail is purposely for the benefit of a Buddie love story (instead of two friends and actors who can't always explain what makes them "work"), and... ...the reaction was inevitable. Things took a turn when people could not and would not separate couch theory from Eddie *despite* what we were watching on a weekly basis. Buck and Eddie have no more personal moments together after 6x01? It's all part of the grander plan. Aisha says Ryan doesn't really know much about the coma dream? She's teasing us. Of course Eddie is going to play a central role. Eddie doesn't end up getting time alone with Buck at his bedside or making an appearance in the coma dream? CLEARLY there are good reasons for that! Trust the process! And it just kept on going like that literally right up until Buck and Natalia became canon, because the hope from fandom's POV was that Buck was going to realize they weren't a good fit and end the season hanging out with the Eddie (+ maybe Chris) on the Diaz couch. Once people made up their minds that season six was going to be THE year, there was no looking back. People wanted canon!Buddie, but they also wanted to be able to laugh in the face of everyone who thought it wasn't going to happen. Now that it didn't work out the way they wanted? Who cares who's "right" about Buddie in the end? We're all just here for a good time! (The folks who've had to read the words "long form storytelling" and "media literacy" for months would beg to differ, but this fandom isn't known for acknowledging mistakes. They just block/mute/unfollow anyone who points out when they jump the gun, lol.)

[fulcrumstardust]

1, 32 and 50 for the bookworm asks?

Name the best book you've read so far this year.

It's gonna be Gideon the Ninth! I know, late to the party. Blew my socks off, I've been murdered by this book like nothing else. (5 stars read to speak like the booktube girlies 😂)

Two runners-up: Jade City and She Who Became the Sun

32. Name your favorite author(s).

This is so hard because I don't think I have favorite authors? 😭 I tend to like series or a book from someone and then move on, I guess. Or maybe it's my trust issues and the countless series that let me down.

(Pierce Brown is a great writer for example but I've read one (1) series from him so is he my fav? I also really love Alexander Freed's mind but I want to read something that isn't corporate from him. Gimme.)

50. What kind of book have you never read but always hope to find at some point in the future?

Sadie, what does that mean? 😂 Like my dream story? Sure yeah, all the books that promised me so much and DIDN'T DELIVER!

This might be a niche problem but why is it so hard to find a scifi and/or fantasy series that goes hard BUT with a serious romance that ISN'T the sole focus but still CENTRAL to the themes. You know what I mean? It's like you have to choose, either the smut or the world building. What if I want both? Basically, what I'm getting from the rebelcaptain fandom lol

📚 ❥ Ask me book questions

[2n2n]

I love the Tsukasa and Nene ship, and it seems that you do too and I would like to know why? Because this ship doesn't seem to be very popular what attracted you to it? And do you think it's possible for this ship to happen in the manga? (Unfortunately seen from my point of view I don't think so, because Tsukasa seems so innocent for this to happen, besides he only thinks about Hanako-kun 😢)

Popularity or suggestions from others has little to do with what I ship; I read the work, I imbibe the story, and I ship things based on what I am intrigued by, or perceive, in the story. I don't tend to engage much with fandom when reading something first time, so I had no idea what was 'big' or what wasn't (I didn't look at the fandom at all until the Far Shore arc, where I only really suddenly glimpsed it because I was looking for Sumire/Hakubo stuff & was blindsided by other's dislike of Hakubo). For instance, the popularity of Mitsuba and Kou, and ?? Aoi and Nene ?? completely and utterly baffled me, I wouldn't have guessed people really cared about any of that. I came out of it only caring about the twins x Nene-chan.

As it is, it intrigued me early on that Amane can compare Nene-chan to Tsukasa. They share a lot in common, centrally their love of Amane. In canon and in AUs, Tsukasa often acts like a sort of informant, giving Nene-chan information. The canon itself gives me the impression he places a lot of trust on her, and likes her. The story itself lead me to asking questions about it, and its viability only kept increasing as I read. I went into this expecting to only like HanaNene, but, AmaTsuka became the next obvious thing, but then weirdly the final piece, TsuNene, felt like it started taking shape...

Yes, I think it's possible for the ship to happen. I think it's the point of a lot of threads and ideas… I really do believe that. There are enough comics, illustrations, and commentary from JP fandom that make me feel I am not the only one seeing it, either. It's just the American fandom is helpless.... I call myself delusional but like any good delusional person, I believe what I think is true.

I guess after playing Narisokonai Snow White especially-- wherein you spend half the game exploring the love between the Princess x one twin, and then the OTHER half of the game unraveling the love the OTHER twin feels for the Princess-- yet ultimately relinquishes her to his brother, who he feels the Princess loves truly and deserves to be with-- I'm, really convinced that it's not just my delusion, but the sort of multilayered love story intrigue Iro-sensei likes to tell. We have much more to learn about Tsukasa!

I don't think Tsukasa "only thinks about Hanako-kun". I think these sentiments are incredibly sincere:

and intentionally loaded. You don't get a single vibe from TsuNene scenes? Aren't these vibes why anyone ships it? Well, I get major vibes.... It's not like....... Teru x Natsuhiko, or, some other frivolous idea invented out of thin air. lol

It could be his love for Amane that makes him love Nene-chan; the only other person who can understand what it is like, to wish to die for Amane.

For him to be willing to let Nene-chan in on so much, and share so many precious moments with Amane, I feel he has to admire her.

Iro-sensei likes complex romantic intrigue!!! I can't say enough ... Narisokonai Snow White was so about the interplay between the cast of twins + a girl they both like. The Princess and Rasphard were similarly ill-behaved children, something the Ambrose family notes in the text. The Princess, who is already in love with Estelio, sees similarity between the twin boys. We use established love between individuals to implicate love all across the ships. As the player of the game, you can cause either twin to yandere out on the princess based on what choices you make....

I believe in twin romance supremacy. I think it is why we have twins + a girl.

I think it is Iro-sensei's fetish lol

Now what I will say is your thought of "Tsukasa is too innocent for it to happen" is kind of real, but you should give more credit, then, to Nene-chan, who could also make it happen... :) ;) I mean look at her as it is, chasing down Hanako all running away from her every few chapters....!

Maybe Tsukasa doesn't understand everything he feels or everything that could be possible! Amane also thought he didn't value anything, much less her life. Nene-chan teaches the boys many things about love~