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rottmnt-residuum · 3 months ago

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Hi, I've read the Residuum comic, and I think the characterization of the boys is really good. I was wondering if you have any tips on how to write them? Especially Mikey, please.

I'd actually recommend re-watching the show with one character in mind. All my notes on the turtles come from doing separate re-watches for each of them. The key is to ONLY watch the character you are focusing on.

In the end, you'll probably be happier with your own personal interpretation. As we are with ours lol

TL;DR

Massive post under the cut

To preface: we'll be contrasting (this Mikey) against the fandoms version of Mikey, as our interpretation is very different. Don't worry if you prefer the fandom version, there's nothing… wrong per se with writing him this way. We just find him flat and uninteresting. (Main author: not me, I just hate him, lol).

Every reader or fan comes into a story with their own biases and experiences. A ton of our view of Mikey is based on how our siblings acted. We see Mikey as the young sibling that got preferential treatment from the whole family, simply due to being the youngest, but is now aging out of the privilege. Which all youngest siblings do at some point or another.

The fandoms version of Mikey is empathetic, naive, vulnerable, co-dependent and quite often a door mat who cries at the drop of a hat. And as much as the fandom like to say that people love him… when this particular character archetype is in other media, they seem to attract the most criticism. Mable pines, Bolin from Korra, people rag on Aang all the fucking time, and Steven Universe is a whole other bag. These characters don't deserve it, and yet it happens anyway.

To flatten Mikey to simply 'the baby' is a disservice. We don't see or write Mikey as the fandom “baby” version (cinnamon roll uwu). Part of this comes from having multiple siblings, so we interpret the times when Mikey does the puppy dog eyes as typical younger sibling bullshit, mostly by the way that the other turtles rarely react to it, if at all.

The other turtles traits can also get projected onto Mikey. Mikey being the fandom therapist is in the same category as this. He isn't a therapist, he's a psychology nerd who likes to psychoanalyze people and meddle in their relationships. (Donnie and Shelldons relationship, Splinter and Draxums...) he's not trying to resolve your emotional issues. Of the turtles, the character that cares the most about people's feelings is Raph. And Leo is more of a consoler than Mikey ever is. It flattens all the turtle's characterizations when you start doing this because you are ripping out parts that are integral to another characters' complexity.

Co-author has told me that they've seen people become confused when going into the show after only reading fan fiction or coming from the movie. They see his characterization as inconsistent and become upset when their view of him is contradicted. This also happens when a fandomized version of him becomes the primary characterization that they use. Sometimes when this disconnect happens (or if they just don't like the character), Mikey characterization is swung in the complete opposite direction.

They make him manipulative and abusive, or someone who is hyper violent and avoids being held accountable for anything. This is an uncharitable interpretation of him and can come off as pretty racist depending on the circumstances. (like if someone considers the turtles black or not)

Every version of Mikey is a shithead (affectionate), even this one. Especially this one, really. When Mikey not doing the "baby schtick" hes mean. If you pay attention to what he's saying, and just not his tone of voice, he's consistently saying pretty mean or condescending stuff. (You could take this as simply naïveté, but he still says mean shit pretty often regardless)

The times he does say genuinely nice stuff the turtles don't exactly expect it from him, at least, in the early season. And while he is mean, and seems to find saying mean things to be funny, Mikey isn't cruel. Nor will he ever be.

This shit-headery behavior is found in both 2003 and 18 Mikey. They have a degree of social intelligence that lets them use it to annoy people into doing what they want. 18 just has the advantage of being baby faced and having better tonal control. He's good at using people's perception of him to get what he wants.

Let Mikey have his problematic traits, but don't overexaggerate them. He doesn't revel in fooling people. He loves doing character bits, and the baby faced one just happens to be one of them. However, to infantilize or to deem him incompetent is to piss him off, he wants to be viewed as a competent part of the team and competent as an individual. He's not insecure about being young, he just doesn't want to be treated like he can't do anything.

Mikey above all is an optimistic character, he sees the brighter side quite often and is conscious of the harm his actions have on people. Mostly after the fact, but he consistently attempts to rectify the harm he has personally done to peoples lives. (Todd, Bullhop, Draxum). Food and shelter seems to be a thing that he considers to be a right. He doesn't cross a boundary twice once he learns of it, and he never pushes people too far (if he likes you, that is. if he doesn't know you or doesn't like you, he doesn't give a singular shit. But that is standard to most people.). He doesn't care about people's stuff, though. He breaks things all the time.

Mikey understands boundaries, but he doesn't automatically recognize them. He needs them to verbalized or for there to be a very obvious reaction to the boundary being crossed (unfortunately, for Todd and Donnie). Sometimes people mess up (esp. younger people), and it can take a while for teens to learn where boundary is, but he fully respects the boundaries he does know about. He doesn't act petulant when he's told about boundary, he apologizes, accepts it, and moves on. He doesn't dwell.

Mikey doesn't hold on to distressing emotions. He bounces between emotions quickly, but isn't effected in the long run. One thing Iv'e seen people often conflate is the difference between sensitive and vulnerable. Mikey is sensitive, but I have never seen him vulnerable to others. To be sensitive is to be easily influenced by the current situation. To be vulnerable is to hold that influence for a long time. Characters can have one, both, or neither of these traits. But Mikey is not vulnerable. It is the difference between compressing memory foam and a piece of metal until they deform. One will pop back, the other does not.

Those who are vulnerable but not sensitive will take longer to effect, but once you do, they will hold on to that emotion for a very long time. The vulnerable, are grudge holders. (leo). But like I've said, Mikey bounces back. What a character does has an effect on his emotions, but it doesn't make a lasting impression.

Forgiveness is another thing people like to push on him. It is not that Mikey forgives people easily, it's just that he doesn't hold grudges. He neither forgives nor forgets, but he does not ruminate. He's generally affable, first impressions seem to be a big part of how he views people. He is idealistic, and doesn't assume people are unchanging and/or evil, but he's not a mark.

Mikey isn't so much as naive or overly trusting… it's just that he's inexperienced. He doesn't get fooled by anyone in the series except meat sweats, and that's because Meatsweats is on Todd drugs. Mikey just didn't notice when he started faking. He's not… actually all that aware of people's emotional states, passively. He has to tune in to notice things like that.

Mikey isn't someone who really tries to regulate others emotions, either. The fandom like to make Mikey afraid of his brothers fighting and others being upset, but Mikey doesn't actually care. The most distressed we ever see him in a fight is in the movie, and he's not SCARED, he's just concerned (and then alarmed once it turned physical). If anything, outside extenuating circumstances (like the movie), Mikey actually seems to find their fights annoying.

(Mikey actually seems to have a pretty short fuse, but his bounciness doesn't really let it linger very long, lmao)

(One pet peeve of fandom Mikey is the constant crying, crying at fights, crying at insults, crying for no reason all the time. Sure, he tears up when he gets emotional, but when Mikey is genuinely crying It's when he's desperate, like when he's hungry, or when he's trying to save Leo from certain doom. Same thing, really.)

Mikey respects no one (we love him for this). He admires people, he admires his family: April, the turtles, his dad, Lou Jitsu. He admires Rupert Swaggert, but he respects none of them. No one is sacrosanct to the Mikey.

Above all, the way we write characters is to give them a past that informs how they act now. We view Mikey and the other turtles as teenagers that were kids, and that will be adults. Yes they all have “problematic” traits, but 1) good characters need flaws, and controversial traits are one of the best to use, and 2) they're teenagers, don't expect adult behaviors from them, also don't expect them to be kids. They're minors, not toddlers.

This is getting as long enough as it is, so we'll stop here, but this is a very broad overview of how we characterize him. There's a lot we didn't cover here, but if we even started on hobbies, or the real minutia of his quirks and ticks, or even how he feels about other specific characters... we'd be here all day. So I hope this is good enough lol

If there was something you wanted to know in particular, you'll need to get specific. Feel free to ask again ahahh

#residual asks #rottmnt #rottmnt michelangelo #rise mikey #side note:#do not write the characters based on archetypes ah la heroes journey/hero with a thousand faces #(john campbell is a racist sexist pos)#hollywood was ruined by the attempts to copy Star Wars ad infintium #everyone thank co-author for deleting all my vitriol #i am full of rage and too many opinions on the show and how people handle the characters #but co-author is a patient soul who has removed all my dumbassery and wrote half of this #thank you co-author we love you #honestly there is so much i want to include here but i didn't want to make you wait longer than this ahahahah #if any of you want our stuff on the other characters you'll have to ask for them separately #and then wait a week or two lmao #also we have a list of mikeys verbal ticks if you want #ough.. writing words give me tummy ache

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olderthannetfic · 16 days ago

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Question. Possibly naive question at that. So I totally understand and respect why ao3 doesn’t allow any mentions of monetization of fanwork. But I am wondering — how do we feel about fanfic commissions as a concept? Obviously I would never dare mention it on Ao3, 99% bc of the TOS and 1% cuz it seems gimmicky, but also, like, it’s very much a thing I do. . . Are fandoms opposed to fanfic commissions? Or is it more of a “legally I can’t endorse this but you do you”?

In the kind of LJ culture that built AO3, people did that for charity, like Fandom Trumps Hate now. Making actual money from your fic just wasn't done in those circles. In older zine circles, people "covered costs" only, but sometimes, those "costs" included a hell of a lot more than other fans approved of. On one end, it meant the literal printer's bill; on the other, it meant some pay for the editor's time and the gas to get to a con on top of the table fee, registration, and hotel room. In the 2020s, different parts of fandom are all over the place in attitudes towards selling fic in various ways.

Personally, I find it weird and distasteful. If I needed to earn money fast, I'd do original fetish commissions. If I want to write for money overall, I'll do what I do now: original novels with some of the same vibe my fanfic has.

When too much profit motive enters hobby spaces, the social atmosphere changes. A knitting meetup at a yarn store works okay, but someone trying to sell their hand dyed yarn at a meetup in the park tends to mess with the vibes. Someone else's dinner party is not an appropriate place for mlm shit. etc. etc.

Fanfic spaces are even more vulnerable to having the social scene ruined. There is already, inherently, a certain amount of pressure to write what is popular. Adding a direct profit motive exaggerates that even more.

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thomas-jefferson-miku-binder · 4 months ago

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I hate Mel Medarda discourse because she’s an insanely well-written character with a lot of depth, but people almost always have only two things to say about her: 1) evil girlboss or 2) never did anything wrong. both make me want to krill myself 🦐

In front of you, there’s a female character born of war who rejects the physical brutality of her family’s name and the regime she was born under. except said violence never really goes away because if it ever does leave, nothing else would remain

This character can and will reproduce the hatred she has always known, just in more palpable ways, ways where she’s allowed to look away — or even better, ways where she’s so distanced from the action itself that where she “looks” doesn’t even matter

It’s also so interesting to think that maybe Mel doesn’t dislike physical violence because it’s “bad” but simply because she does not excel at it The thought that if Mel was maybe stronger or a more skilled fighter, she would be just like her mother tickles my brain. yaaaas Although, to me, that's a more "what-if" scenario than the actual characterization Arcane deceipts

By the way, I do not think Mel is a monster. She clearly does try to be what she considers a "good" person, but the violence she’s always known sometimes escapes (just like in the Viktor scene above — she does not like to be disagreed with).

Sooo insane that she’s a diplomat/politician because yes. what other job in the world would allow her to exercise that repressed violence while also giving her the sense of duty—of goodness.

Mel is stuck at the scene of the execution form her childhood. All she does is repeat the same scenario in her head with different outcomes: sometimes one where she saves the prisoner, another where she doesn’t hesitate (that being the keyword here) to kill her

This reverberation of the violence she suffered is just her manner of coping with that traumatic scene. a way of lessening the pain without actually confronting its cause.

I feel like I need to clarify that no, I do not think Mel is “evil”. I don’t even think she is intentionally manipulative (most of the time), I think she handles people the only way she knows how to, which is probably one of the only reasons she survived Noxus at all (as, to how I see it, there's only a certain extent your House will guarantee your protection in Noxus).

I know the fandom talks a lot about Viktor and Jayce being idealistic, but I rarely see people mention how Mel is just as romantic. Jesus- that’s literally a huge source of conflict with her mother: Ambessa thinks Mel is naive, which to her means weakness, which to her is unacceptable.

I hate that Mel Medarda is forced to be subjected to fandom spaces, because, no, she is not a small bean. no, she’s not an evil girlboss.

Do I believe she is a good person? I think she tries to be (even if her notion of goodness is so heavily aligned with honor, too), and that tells me a lot more about her character than how successful she is at it

#bringing some of my twitter rambles to here because i think it makes semi sense #cali speaks #mel medarda #arcane #arcane: league of legends #lol #league of legends #meta #character analysis

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blueshadesfandomstuff · 2 years ago

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Friend! What a lovely point! To love openly from a place of knowledge is badass! I hope more people write badass kind people!

ppl seem to do this thing in fandoms where theyll take a character whos inherently kind and trusting of people and then they make the fanon version of them ignorant or innocent to certain things by default and i dont like it

#kindness is it's own reward #it doesn't make you naive to be kind #also #just a little bit of fandom #Dick Grayson - this is so him #and Jason Todd sometimes but that harder to find #also Batman - the one that cares for children #not the punisher in a stupid hat

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ckret2 · 4 months ago

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Your fic has given me "sees Bill as an actual rounded character now" disease so all of the funny fanarts that reduce him to just the pathetic ex guy or to looser idiot triangle i found funny before annoy me slightly now and I'm blaming you

that's honestly hilarious because I'm having the opposite experience

I wasn't deep in Gravity Falls fandom during the peak Tumblr Sexyman Bill Cipher years—I watched the show one time and forgot about it for ~4 years—but I was close enough to see it happening on my dash. And the suave, sophisticated, infinitely in-control Bill characterization was ubiquitous throughout tumblr—the "tailor-made to dom in an x reader fic" characterization where 90% of the emotions he demonstrates are "smirking" and "brooding but in a cool way." (those are emotions now.) Some works would go as far as to say that Bill's mind was simply too alien to be relatable to a human. Most of the works featuring him with Ford depicted Ford as completely enthralled with Bill, naively worshiping the ground he floats over, while Bill was usually depicted as cool, distant, disinterested, at best faintly amused by his human toy. In fanworks like that, the idea that Bill could possibly have been distraught by losing hold of Ford was unthinkable.

And that was common enough—the cool, aloof villain—that it's jarring to go from absorbing that via osmosis for years to rewatching the show and remembering oh right, he's a bit of a dweeb that hollers at people through sock puppets and freaks out when the cops bust in on his red solo cup party.

By the time I started my fic in 2023 the sexyman Bill had died down enough that I found other folks exploring his goofy side, but it still seemed like any time I ducked in on ao3 looking for Bill-centric works, I still saw echoes of that old fanon characterization more often than not.

So for me? It's been great seeing fanworks depicting Bill as an emotionally devastated, blubbering mess over losing his favorite pawn. It's been great seeing fanworks that allow him to be a loser, a failure, a dork, sometimes bumbling or in over his head or sticking his foot in his mouth. Hell yeah! This is what I've been missing for years!

Maybe it'll get annoying eventually but right now it just feels like it's finally balancing him out.

#anonymous #ask #meta #bill cipher #gravity falls #(also im really into the most feared arrogant & overpowered villain in a work being reduced to a despondent wreck over someone much lower)#(gotta be one of my favorite tropes)#(BUT that's just my personal tastes)

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flightfoot · 2 months ago

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How Alya's mistreated by the saltdom and the writers

I've written this for the @yall-hate-kids-tourney, but figured that I'd publish it on my own tumblr as well for an easy reference point for others who want to illustrate how badly Alya's been treated - mostly by the fandom, but she's been somewhat screwed over by the writing as well. I've written it so that even people who have never heard of Miraculous before can understand my problems with the way Alya's often depicted, and I will probably use this essay for that purpose repeatedly in the future. It's over 4500 words, so buckle up!

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The amount of hatred Alya gets in the fandom is absolutely insane. There are over 800 fics tagged with "Alya Cesaire Bashing", and that's just the ones that actually TAG it - many of them either use a a non-canonical tag or just take their demonization of her as canon. It's not just that a lot of fics bash her either, but that the fics that bash her are disproportionately popular. If you go through the "Miraculous Ladybug" tag on AO3 and sort by kudos, I'd say around a third of the top 500 most popular fics use this gross caricature of her in order to justify inflicting some sort of insane punishment on her, or at least replacing her with "better" friends and leaving her to wail in despair.

Basically, Alya is the best friend of the main character, Marinette. She's really into superheroes and aims to be a reporter someday, to the point that the first time a supervillain cropped up in the series, she immediately got out her bike and cycled after him so that she could be there when a superhero showed up to fight him (Lois Lane would be proud). She runs a blog called the "Ladyblog" which reports on what the superheroes are doing, and sometimes makes some fun videos, like about the most impressive feats of one of the superheroes.

More relevantly though, she acts as Marinette's support a lot of the time, often being the one to push her to confess her feelings to Adrien, to help her with plans she comes up with, to talk things out with if she's having trouble processing something, and trying to act as the voice of reason if Marinette's gotten to into her own head. It can sometimes head into Black Best Friend territory of having her mostly stick around to support her bestie, but she DOES get a decent amount of screentime and focus at least.

Then the first episode of season 3 aired, and the fandom went BALLISTIC.

This character, Lila, debuted back at the end of season 1 as being this attention-seeking liar who pretended that she knew a lot more famous people than she actually did, including being best friends with Ladybug. Alya, being a naive 14-year-old, believed her and put Lila's interview on her blog. Since Marinette IS Ladybug, she knew this was not true, though she was initially more freaked out about the possibility that Adrien (the boy she has a crush on) would find her supposedly amazing life to be entrancing and that Lila would steal Adrien away from her, to the point that she actively wanted to stop Lila and Adrien from spending time together to prevent Adrien from falling for her.

Fast-forward to Chameleon, the first episode of season 3, and Lila's back and lying some more, this time about having Tinnitus (which would mean that she needs to sit at the front of class, next to Adrien). The class has a whole seating rearrangement in order to accommodate the move, and because some of them just wanted to change seats. Since Marinette was late that day, she didn't get to give input, so she wound up sitting alone at the back of the class, instead of next to Alya like she usually did. She's upset by this, but can't prove that Lila doesn't actually have the disability (she doesn't even have evidence that Lila doesn't have hearing problems, it's just that her story of how she supposedly got the disability is suspect), so she puts up with it for the class period.

Then lunch time rolls around and Marinette tells Alya and Alya's boyfriend, Nino, that Lila's a lying liar who lies. Alya asks why Marinette hates her so much, since she barely knows Lila (this isn't the first time that Marinette's nitpicked at Lila's stories, but she's never actually managed to prove that Lila's lying, Lila's good at coming up with explanations for any hole Marinette exposes in her tales). Marinette tells her how, after Lila first arrived at school, she followed her and Adrien, eavesdropped on them, and then saw Ladybug show up and tear into Lila for not knowing her. (Presumably that's what she says, the episode skipped past her actual recounting of what she saw). Alya and Nino are more concerned with the fact that she stalked Lila and Adrien, with Alya also being skeptical that what she heard might have been out-of-context, given how common out-of-context eavesdropping is in fiction for causing issues, with Alya saying, "A good reporter always verifies her sources. Can you prove she doesn't actually know Ladybug?"

Since Marinette can't actually prove anything without revealing that she's Ladybug, she decides that the sane and reasonable thing to do is to throw a wadded up napkin at Lila while she's eating lunch, and when she catches it (Lila's pretending to have a sprained wrist), to loudly declare that she obviously doesn't have a sprained wrist. Lila quickly pretends that catching it did actually hurt, the classmates Lila was sitting with scold Marinette for hurting her, and then Marinette goes off to seethe in a bathroom, where Lila finds her and threatens to turn her friends against her if she continues trying to expose her lies.

Then at the end of the episode, Adrien goes to sit with Marinette at the back of the class to keep her company, the teacher thinks that Marinette ALSO has hearing issues so she's brought back to the front (and away from Adrien again), Lila pretends that her hearing has been fixed so she can sit at the back with Adrien, and Alya spots that Marinette looks miserable about sitting alone at the front, so she chooses to sit next to Marinette to keep her company and everyone ends up going back to their old places, except that Lila's sitting at the back of the class now.

And that's it. That is, for the most part, what kicked off the entire Alya hatred and demonization onslaught. While there ARE more things that happening in following episodes, they have a pretty small effect on the demonization Alya's put through, almost all of it is derived from Chameleon and hasn't changed much since then.

So for starters, in fanfics Alya is often made to ditch Marinette constantly to hang out with Lila instead. This never happens. She's often exasperated when Marinette starts talking about how Lila is awful and points out that she doesn't have proof of that, but she doesn't avoid Marinette, and the closest she ever comes to hanging out with Lila outside of class events is when she called Lila over to babysit hers and Nino's younger siblings when Marinette canceled at the last minute.

But most Alya-bashing fics don't just leave it there. Oh no. If you look through a bunch of the most popular Miraculous fics, you'll see Alya made out to be some sort of ringleader for the class in bullying Marinette, hitting her, pinching her, poisoning her, destroying her things, saying nasty, heinous things to her, the works, and inciting the rest of the class to do the same, sometimes to the point that even LILA is shocked at her cruelty. Usually in these cases, Chloe, who is canonically the class bully (and Marinette's bully in particular) is inexplicably Marinette's primary protector against the eeeeeevil Alya, becoming Marinette's best friend and support and basically taking on Alya's canon role and some of her personality traits, despite the fact that canonically, Chloe's as susceptible to Lila's lies as anyone else, and that in season 5 Chloe actually became Lila's partner in crime in trying to hurt Marinette in particular. (I don't like how Chloe's treated in canon, but that's a different story).

I've never even seen any justification given for why Alya's so frequently made to be outright violent or cruel towards Marinette, it's just widely accepted in fiction now, even with nothing pointing to her ever being malicious like that. There ARE other things Alya canonically does that I see her taken to task over though, but that fall apart when you examine them.

One of the biggest offenders is criticism towards Alya over how she handles babysitting. In Christmaster, Alya and Nino pick up Nino's little brother after Marinette babysits him for them while they're on a date, in Timetagger, Marinette's slated to babysit for them while they're on a date but cancels at the last minute, so they call Lila over instead, and then in Simple Man, Marinette books herself to babysit Alya's and Nino's younger siblings and the daughter of one's of her mom's friends, a little girl named Manon, all at the same time.

Alya receives heavy criticism for not paying Marinette for her babysitting, for having Marinette babysit for her secretly behind her parents' back without their knowledge, and for pressuring Marinette to babysit for her even though Marinette's so busy.

A few problems with this.

1. We see babysitting happen several times, sometimes with Alya helping Marinette with babysitting Manon and sometimes with Marinette just babysitting Manon without anyone else's involvement. At no point is payment brought up, and yet the absence of such a discussion is only ever used to demonize Alya.

2. There is no evidence that the babysitting Marinette does for Alya's sake is done behind her parents' back, the only thing pointing to that is a lack of Alya ever flat-out saying that she has her parents' permission to have Marinette babysit for her, but there's no evidence of sneaking around. MARINETTE, however, DOES canonically ditch her babysitting duties by having Alya babysit for her without the parent's knowledge. In Prime Queen, Marinette accidentally double books herself to do an interview as Ladybug at the same time that she's supposed to be babysitting Manon, so she calls Alya over to watch the interview with her, lies to her that she's just gonna go downstairs for a few minutes to talk with her parents and for Alya to please watch over Manon while she does that, and then leaves to do the interview while Alya watches over Manon the whole time. Nadja definitely didn't know that this happened, because she was surprised and worried when Alya and Manon called in during the interview with Marinette nowhere to be seen. In addition to this, in Simpleman, Marinette foists off all the children she's babysitting onto her grandpa against his will so that she can run off and help with Adrien's photoshoot after he calls her. The people demonizing Alya for supposedly having Marinette babysit for her secretly are not upset about the examples of Marinette canonically doing these things.

3. Of the three times that Marinette has, to date, been scheduled to babysit for Alya's sake (Christmaster, Timetagger, and Simpleman), for Christmaster she spent the next several hours after finishing with babysitting making Adrien's 50th birthday present (he's currently 14 years old), so I wouldn't say she was pressed for time, for Timetagger, she literally called Alya at the last minute to say she was too busy to babysit and Alya said it was no biggie and made other arrangements, and for Simpleman, Alya offered to cancel her date and take care of her younger siblings herself the instant she saw that Marinette was already babysitting Manon, and Marinette told her to go ahead and go on her date and that she'd look after her siblings.

So clearly, the people clutching their pearls about how horribly irresponsibly Alya is handling babysitting and how she's wronging Marinette in the process don't actually care about babysitting ethics here, because otherwise, Marinette would be getting the brunt of the hatred, not Alya. Despite this, I've seen a fair number of posts in the past tearing into Alya's babysitting for the reasons I already gave, and a bunch of fics that make it so that Alya pressures and guilt-trips Marinette into babysitting for her when she's struggling to keep up with all her work, only to have her parents find out and be horrified by how Alya's lied to them about who's been doing the babysitting and that Alya's been getting an increased allowance because of that, so they pay Marinette out of Alya's allowance and ground her, take away privileges, just have this be used as an excuse to punish Alya for supposedly wronging Marinette.

And then there's the subcategory of Alya demonization towards her for putting up Lila's interview on her blog without verifying that Lila was telling the truth. Admittedly, this was foolish, but she's 14. Retractions exist for a reason. And yet, fics frequently have her reputation be completely destroyed because she put up one interview that had a false statement by the interviewee in it, and sometimes even to be completely blacklisted from ever being a journalist in the future, things that are completely insane and would have even the most storied and well-respected of reporters be unable to ever get a job.

She also frequently gets demonized and bashed for "believing Lila over Marinette". My major issue with this: what she's specifically believing Lila over Marinette for is on the topic of "is Lila an awful person". I don't think it's unreasonable to have a higher standard of proof for believing that someone is an awful person than for believing that your friend might just have some biased interpretations. Alya thinks that Marinette doesn't like Lila mostly because Lila has hit on Adrien, Marinette's crush, before. This isn't unreasonable considering that Marinette's first reaction to Lila is to freak out about her stealing Adrien away, and that when this other girl, Kagami, started hanging out with Adrien, she freaked out about that too. Specifically, she called a meeting of all her female friends to try and stop Kagami and Adrien from going away together to London for the weekend in Backwarder, helped Chloe in trying to get Kagami covered in food at a fancy red carpet movie opening in order to drive her away and steal her seat next to Adrien for the movie, and when she and Kagami were paired up for a "friend-making game" where the goal was to locate where Adrien was in Paris and the prize was to spend time with him, she pretended to genuinely want to be Kagami's friend so she could sabotage both of them and prevent Kagami from spending time with Adrien. So it's not like the belief that Marinette might be unfairly biased against Lila because she's made moves on Adrien is an unfair assumption.

In addition to that, on the occasions when Lila HAS tried to frame Marinette for something, Alya hasn't believed it, or hasn't been shown to believe it at least. In Ladybug, Lila tries to frame Marinette for cheating on a test, for stealing a necklace from her, and for knocking her down the stairs. Despite the evidence Lila planted, Alya doesn't believe it and investigates to try and find out what really happened. She doesn't uncover any solid proof, but she still believes in Marinette. She doesn't believe that Marinette's assumption that Lila's behind this is necessarily correct, since Marinette's leaping to that without presenting proof, but she doesn't believe that Marinette's the culprit either. And in the two following cases when Marinette's framed, Alya never actually gets a chance to say what she believes after the accusation is made against Marinette.

Just... the amount of demonization towards Alya TO THIS DAY, often for things she NEVER EVEN FREAKING DID, is absolutely insane. Even over 5 years since Chameleon aired, fics with Alya being made into this malicious, awful bully so that Marinette can get some new friends to publicly denounce her, get her arrested, or otherwise be punished are frequently on the front page of the most recently updated fics on AO3, and are often some of the most popular ones. If you go to "Fandom-Specific plot" on Tvtropes, saltfics like these have multiple files going through all the common salt tropes. When looking through fics, I frequently search for Alya's name because she's often the first person to be unfairly demonized, so if she's safe, then everyone likely is.

I suspect that racism plays a major factor in this. It doesn't make sense that Alya's often painted as being a violent, malicious bully and leader in getting the rest of the class to physically hurt and terrorize Marinette, I haven't even seen analysis arguing that she'd do that... but it tracks with the "Black Brute" archetype. This becomes even more obvious with Chloe, who's white and canonically DOES do some of this stuff, taking on Alya's canon role and some of her personality traits in these sorts of stories.

Then there's the standard Alya's held to for how she handles her blog. It's way higher than anyone would hold real-world reporters to, much less 14-year-olds. But it makes sense if you factor racial bias into account, and how Alya, being Black, is going to be held to a higher standard than anyone else, and be punished more for failing to meet that standard.

For things like the babysitting double standard, it makes no sense if you're actually looking at the stated criticism, given that the same criticism isn't leveled at Marinette... but it makes perfect sense if you're going off the assumption that Alya, as Marinette's Black Best Friend, is supposed to solely function as her support and that she's simply fulfilling her duties by always being there for her when needed, including for babysitting, but that if Marinette ever attempts to repay in kind, then Alya's being unfair towards her because Alya's obligated to always support Marinette, but that relationship is supposed to be a one-way street. Alya is supposed to function as Marinette's support, never the other way around.

And as for the way Alya's demonized for asking for evidence before believing that Lila's lying, well... again, Alya's expected to act as Marinette's support, and her "failing" that in any way, even if it makes sense from her point of view, is viewed as a betrayal. She's supposed to be loyal to Marinette, and only to Marinette, not to think for herself or to have multiple other friends or values that she needs to weigh. And anything that she does to go against that "justifies" Marinette intentionally trying to hurt and punish her for failing to live up to her role.

In conclusion, the way Alya's treated by the salt side of the fandom is grossly unfair, often has little connection with anything she canonically did, and has some gross racist implications, and is likely at least partially spurred on by racism, especially with how common and popular it still is to this day.

Addendum: How Alya is screwed over by the writers.

While Alya is primarily screwed over by the fanbase, there are some aspects of the writing that exacerbate her ill treatment. In season 4, Marinette confesses her secret identity to Alya, letting her know that she is Ladybug. Despite now knowing why Marinette was so convinced that Lila wasn't friends with Ladybug, and that Lila's interview stating that she's best friends with Ladybug is a lie, the subject just... never comes up, even when Lila starts being important again. It's not that Alya's ignoring what Lila lying on those subjects means, it's more like the writers just completely forgot that Lila told those particular lies, since Marinette doesn't bring them up either. This creates an inconsistency with the fanbase, who really, really, REALLY haven't forgotten those lies.

There ARE ways to explain this - Lila lying about being friends with Ladybug in order to try to boost her reputation, especially when she's the new girl, isn't really all that heinous. Marinette lies a lot as well, even if you don't count lies told to protect her secret identity or other "necessary" lies, sometimes out of embarrassment, sometimes to to try and prevent someone's feelings from getting hurt, and sometimes because she thinks it's the fastest, easiest, or most certain way to get the outcome she wants. And yet, even though Marinette lies a lot, she's not ostracized for that since it's usually not for malicious reasons - foolish reasons at times, but rarely malicious. It would make sense that Lila too, wouldn't be thought too badly of for merely lying in an attempt to make friends.

None of that actually comes up though. Alya later, in Confrontation, states that, "Marinette, you know we'll always believe you. But every time you've accused Lila, there's been no evidence. And at worst, it was just a misunderstanding." Marinette doesn't say anything about the previous times Lila has been proven to lie, so it seems like either it was decided offscreen that the more understandable lies she's told don't matter, or that the writers just plain forgot about them.

There were other opportunities created by Alya knowing Marinette's identity that were ignored. Alya concludes that Adrien backing up Marinette's statement that Lila's bad news was just due to him wanting to defend his girlfriend. This is also a bit of a writing flaw, while wanting to back up his girlfriend's stance IS a decent reason for Adrien to be biased against Lila, this is Adrien we're talking about here. He's nice and understanding to a fault, and is known for giving people the benefit of the doubt and second chances. It makes far less sense to believe that he'd believe the worst of Lila, even if Marinette does, than it does for Marinette to be biased against Lila. That being said, Adrien wouldn't have been present for Lila's more indisputable threats and statements directed against Marinette, so he can't actually verify for sure whether or not there could've been some misunderstanding.

There WAS, however, someone who was always with Marinette, and who could actually back up Marinette's statements more definitively.

Tikki. She was present for every threat Lila made, for everything she ever claimed. While it's possible that both Tikki and Marinette may have misunderstood Lila in the same way, it's far less likely, especially since Tikki would have had different biases from Marinette. Tikki could be an important witness. Yet that never comes up, is never proposed, because that would end the plotline too quickly.

Alya was also screwed over in the immediate aftermath of Lila being exposed, though not by the writers per se? There was a short scene planned after Lila's exposed where Alya apologizes for not believing Marinette about Lila being a liar and generally an awful person, we've even got leaked footage of it, but it appears that it was cut somewhere between being written and voice acted, and the episode being aired.

All of this only really affects detailed arguments about how well (or poorly) Alya's story arc with Lila was handled, its affect on the actual fanfiction produced about Chameleon salt was minimal, I saw no change in its frequency, severity, or general handling of the characters with any season after season 3. I highly doubt that even the changes I suggested here would have done much to persuade the saltdom against Ron the Death Eatering Alya, especially since a lot of the hatred against her has so little to do with the show.

There IS some hatred thrown at Alya for non-Lila related reasons - well, reasons that aren't DIRECTLY Lila related, most of that hatred still stems from people hating her for Chameleon stuff and then retroactively justifying it by looking back at other things she did that irked them. The most common one (that actually has some sort of argument to it, not the "Alya's a horrible babysitter and is abusing her friendship with Marinette" nonsense I listed in the main essay) is that Alya's pushy about getting Marinette together with Adrien.

This is more a product of Alya's usual role in the story than anything. I mentioned in the main essay how Alya sometimes falls into "Black Best Friend" territory, and this is one of the biggest examples. One of her most common roles throughout the series is as the person who pushes Marinette to actually confess to Adrien, to hang out with him, to pursue her romantic desires even with her anxiety holding her back, and to be honest with herself during the times when she's trying to deny her feelings for him. She's Marinette's sounding board whenever she's having an anxiety spiral about... actually, just about anything, and acts as the voice of reason when Marinette gets in her own head too much.

Thus, Alya sets Marinette and Adrien to end up somewhere alone together, or tries to push her to talk to him, or to be honest during the times when she tries to "move on" from Adrien by denying that she still has feelings for him (which is blatantly untrue). She IS okay with Marinette dating someone else though, if she honestly seems to want to do that. She had no problem with her dating Luka, for instance. She DID protest Marinette's seemingly sudden interest in Chat Noir, but that was mostly because Marinette seemed to be grabbing at her new attraction as an attempt to run away from her feelings for Adrien, something that Tikki ALSO noted.

That's another thing - Alya's the character who's most frequently thrown into this role, but she's not the only one, nor even the most extreme one. A new character that was introduced for the Miraculous New York Special, Jess, observed how Adrien and Marinette acted around each other, and decided to try to get them to confess their love by faking a supervillain attack on them, with the supervillain kidnapping anyone that no one loves in order to compel Marinette to FINALLY confess to Adrien. (Alya thought it was stupid, but agreed to help since it might actually work). When Marinette, Adrien, Luka, and Kagami went out to the wax museum together, Luka intentionally locked Adrien and Marinette in a room together so that Marinette would stop running away and would be forced to talk to Adrien. Marinette is written in such a way that other characters are compelled to meddle in her lovelife, because otherwise she'll continue making her own extreme plans and pining away, but never actually confess her feelings.

So while Alya could be said to be "pushy" to an extent, it's mostly for Marinette's benefit. I would like if this was a less frequent role for Alya - I think it does her a disservice, since it locks her firmly into Marinette's orbit rather than emphasizing who Alya is as her own character. Most of the hatred towards Alya for this is tied up in "Die For Our Ship" being directed at Adrien though, with Adrien bashers hating that Alya's trying to set Marinette up with what they see as an inferior option. Ironically enough, while Alya's role in this situation is one of the primary examples in the show of her being treated by the writers as a "Black Best Friend" who exists to serve Marinette's character, it's actually one of the cases where I think racism is a pretty minor part of the hatred by the fanbase over it, since I think that's mostly motivated by hatred towards the Lovesquare.

In conclusion (again), there is an issue with the writers bending Alya's character in order to tell a particular story, particularly a Marinette-centered story, while ignoring how little sense that makes with what happened earlier on in the plotline, or how it centralizes Alya's role and character around Marinette in ways that exacerbate already existing writing patterns in media.

#alya cesaire #ml analysis #ml fandom salt #miraculous ladybug

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silverthehedgehogexplained · 24 days ago

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Explaining Silver the Hedgehog's Backstory

One of the most confusing subjects in the Sonic fandom is Silver’s backstory, the chronology of Sonic 06 and how it affects the characters. So in this post I’ll go over what we know about Silver’s backstory, its effects on his character, his involvement with Blaze and how the ending of Sonic 06 affects them.

Silver was born 200 years into a devastated future ravaged by the Flames of Disaster Iblis. The sky was always dark and the world was filled with endless wastelands ravaged by constant disasters and hostile Iblis spawn. The people are exhausted and live without hope. Iblis rampages and burns everything in its path. Silver has fought against Iblis for most of his life and tried to find the source of the disaster for just as long but no one could tell him how the world came to ruin.

This backstory informs Silver's character in the following ways:

Silver is a warrior. He is proficient in and enjoys fighting, has very aggressive determined expressions with constant fists and is a noted fighter(Shadow describes him as a fighter in Team Sonic Racing) whose power is respected by Sonic and Shadow. Silver is extremely powerful and capable of defeating small armies of enemies and giant monsters by himself. This stems from his apocalyptic background in the hostile future filled with Iblis minions and disasters such as flame tornadoes that he had to battle constantly. When you surprise him in Generations he is instantly ready to fight and angrily looks around, he comes from a world where all manner of Iblis spawn could attack at any given moment. It is explained in Silver's introduction story on Sonic Channel that Silver fought and struggled for half his lifetime, indicating that Silver fought against Iblis and its forces from a very early age.

Silver is naive, he has a black and white perspective and tackles things bluntly. He expects people to believe and cooperate with him when he says he’s from the future or explains outlandish things about his mission. He is earnest, he has no filter and acts unrefined when talking to people(which in Japanese is signified by his use of the informal "Ore" and "Anta" to address himself and others when he speaks). He sometimes takes things literally, misinterprets things or doesn't get jokes. He can also be unfamiliar with things in Sonic's time period. We don't know how people lived in the apocalyptic future or what they did and didn't have access to but it seems to be very rudimentary, destitute and even militarized as one of the glimpses into Silver's future from Sonic Pict shows him eating calorie bar rations that are described as apple flavored. Related to the above, Silver likely spent the majority of his time fighting.

Silver is also very pragmatic. He has a straight to the point mindset and hates distractions, frivolous details or just things getting in his way. As a survivor there is no room for pointless things for him.

On the flip side of that however, Silver is also wide-eyed. He loves challenges and experiencing fun new things he never had access to and is said to engage in cheerful activities following the historical change of 06.

Silver is incredibly optimistic and hopeful. He was able to fight through the hopeless ruined future world because he had the hope for a blue sky and the determination to keep fighting when everyone else had given into despair.

Most importantly of all however is Silver's deep love and drive for peace and prosperity. Silver is a very empathetic person that cares deeply for the state of the world and people around him. Note the beginning of his story in 06 where he expresses outrage at the state of his future with dark skies, endless wastelands and people that live in despair then contrast that with his later dialogue throughout the series where he expresses love for blue skies, beautiful vistas or just places where people live happily. Something as simple as a desert is beautiful to him simply because there is no destruction and the people are happy. Silver particularly loves and desires to protect smiles and blue skies because he came from a world that is stated to be filled with darkness and despair according to Sonic Team's Sonic Channel stories. Silver fights for peace and prosperity for the world and its people because he has experienced quite literal hellish suffering and devastation.

I also want to emphasize that Blaze isn't part of Silver's backstory and he didn't have her in his life in the apocalyptic future. Sonic Team head Takashi Iizuka confirmed that Silver and Eggman Nega originate from the future while Blaze originates from her dimension and writer Ian Flynn has confirmed that Sonic Rush takes place before Sonic 06 with these answers on his podcast.

"I can't get too much into it because this is kind of internal stuff that has not been clarified publicly but Sonic Rush comes first, the Blaze of 06 is the Blaze of Rush and she doesn't die, she turns into Burning Blaze and warps back to her own dimension and forgets the events of 06."

"I don't know how much I can get into it without being given the official go-ahead, but Blaze is not from Silver's post-apocalyptic future. She is from her own dimension and it's extremely nuancey, but she doesn't really see or interact with Sonic until like the very very end of Silver's campaign. It's...an incredibly narrow loophole but she doesn't necessarily know that it's Sonic they're after. Again I'm sure someone can tear that apart very easily but suffice to say, I believe the intention is that she doesn't know that Silver is targeting Sonic specifically and she has no interaction with him or really anybody else in the main cast for that reason."

Meaning that Silver and Blaze only met shortly before the events of 06 and Silver faced the ruined future on his own before that point.

Things are gonna get a bit complicated here but Blaze only temporarily appearing in the future before being ripped away from Silver actually ties into their Tanabata parallel. In the story of Tanabata, Orihime(the princess) only descends to the world of Hikoboshi(the cow herder) for a short while before they are separated for neglecting their duties. At the end of Silver's story, Silver neglects his duty by refusing to seal Blaze away and so they are separated, only to ever meet again when crossing paths in Sonic's world.

When arriving in Wave Ocean, Blaze notes the world of the past. This is because Blaze seems to actually have amnesia.

According to Ian Flynn, the reason why Blaze was kept away from the cast besides Silver in 06 is as a narrow loophole to keep her from realizing it was Sonic they were after. In a 2012 Q&A for the Sonic Boom convention, Sonic Team Creative Officer Takashi Iizuka stated that the characters in 06 had amnesia and at the end of the Metal Virus arc in IDW we learn that rough inter-dimensional travel can cause amnesia which happens to Sonic when he crashes into Blaze's dimension. Blaze then reawakens Sonic's memories by reminding him of his super form, something that Blaze was kept from in 06.

What happens with Blaze in 06 as I understand it is that at some point prior to the events of the game Blaze was transported to the future where she developed amnesia upon arrival before joining Silver in his war against Iblis. They are deceived by Mephiles into trying to assassinate Sonic before Silver learns the truth and returns to the future to seal Iblis away, he is unable to do so however due to not being a compatible vessel and Blaze seals Iblis and herself away instead. Following the defeat of Solaris and the subsequent historical change, Blaze warps back to her Dimension and forgets the events of 06(according to Ian Flynn).

Silver also warps back to the future and forgets the events of 06 but not his apocalyptic life under the devastation of Iblis, only the events of 06 itself and his original partnership with Blaze which was clarified in his Fast Friends Forever profile that states he can't remember how his future was restored(as in the events of 06).

So yes, the ending of Sonic 06 doesn't change Silver or Blaze's backstories. Silver is still the apocalyptic warrior from Sonic 06 and Blaze is still the imperial princess from Sonic Rush before and after the events of 06.

The endings of both Silver’s Story and the Last Story of 06 tie into the game’s themes of duty, sacrifice and exchange.

“Do we have to sacrifice something in order to gain something?”

To gain something you have to lose something, to become a hero you must be willing to make sacrifices. Blaze sacrifices herself to save the future and in exchange for the peaceful happy future he always wanted, Silver, alongside everyone else, loses their memories of the events of 06.

But Silver's duty doesn't end there. He continues to protect the peace of the future as new disasters and changes in the timeline occur, and just like with Iblis, Silver will continue fighting them for a peaceful world.

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randomhealer · 8 months ago

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pathetic little thing

warnings: gn reader, not reviewed

A/n: I wanted to do something about boothill with kids...but I'm trying to expand the fandoms for me write (っ- ‸ - ς)

You don't even know what your relationship with him is, Or rather, why does he stay by your side? who knows? Maybe he has his own reasons.

although he is a rude and sarcastic ball all the time with you, even belittling you sometimes, but sometimes you feel like they are just empty words, it's just as if such harsh words come out naturally from him and he doesn't really want to hurt you or upset you.

His words say one thing but his actions say another. "pfft- how long have you been trying to solve this question on your test? even an earthworm would think faster than you."

"..."

"tsk- let me help you with this so you can finish quickly and go help me set the table for dinner"

he can say as much as he wants that he doesn't care about you, but he's the one who takes care of you when you're sick even without you asking, he was the one who got into a fight with an idiot who was looking at you too much when leaving the supermarket, he was the one who stayed stay on throughout the party just to ensure your safety...

for some reason he knows everything about you, favorite food, favorite artists, the perfume you wear every day, hell he even knows what your favorite shirt is.

If he had to say someone he really hates it would be that scum you call 'boyfriend'

You can see the disgusted face he makes when that scum kisses your cheek, while your boyfriend is around he will become twice as dry and sarcastic, even pouting and ignoring you both

He knows very well that that guy is a pure evil character who is just using you, but you're too naive to realize that, aren't you? stupid little thing...

and when you notice your boyfriend cheating on you with someone else he will just appear behind you with a mocking laugh (although his face is serious) as he watches the situation unfold before sighing and lazily wrapping his arm around your waist "hah- see? I said he wasn't worth it...even I can be a better boyfriend than him."

After this incident he starts to be more affectionate with you, although he still remains sarcastic but he tries to make you laugh more...

Scaramouche/Wanderer, Dr.Ratio, Ace Trappola, Wakasa imaushi, Masumi Yodogawa, +u fav

#genshin impact x reader #hsr x reader #anime x reader #honkai star rail x reader #genshin x reader #honkai star rail x gender neutral reader #twisted wonderland x reader #dr ratio x reader #tokyo revengers x reader #x reader #scaramouche x reader #wanderer x reader #wakasa imaushi x reader #tougen anki x reader #ace trappola x reader

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sneezemonster15 · 3 months ago

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When I had started writing this blog, I was told by other SNS to tag my Sakura and Hinata posts as anti Sakura and anti Hinata so I wouldn't be hounded by their crazy ass stans. Well that didn't work. Lol. Anyway, I began to tag my posts as Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata, because even if I don't like them, my analysis of them is based on their characters, I am rock solid secure about it and I don't care who reads it and cries about it.

My suggestion to SNS fans would be, take the antis head on if you wish so. Take any anti SNS head on. Any single one of them. Confront them if you want, without hesitation or doubt. No need to be afraid.

As a SNS shipper, just know you are in the right. I am ready to sign it on a bond paper. Just know that they are ALL CATEGORICALLY WRONG, and you SNS stans are right, as long as you have sincerely read and understood the manga.

Know that you are backed by the author of the manga, media experts and aficionados and several casual fans who value accountability and have a mature outlook towards storytelling and life. Say it with arrogance and conceit even, because sometimes intimidation works just as well. Don't waste your energy on things that don't deserve it. But if you do choose to confront, never be meek, never surrender. Be cool about it or aggressive, your choice but don't feel disheartened at their takes, they don't know what they are talking about. Laugh at them if you want, that's what their theories are good for anyway.

Enough of this homophobic caterwauling. This is 2024, and this is a global fandom with many fans who are impressionable and naive. Let them have the advantage of understanding the true meaning of this manga. You are the torchbearers of Naruto's legacy, like I have said before, SNS fans are true Naruto fans, the rest are just posers and bigoted dumbfucks. No more bigotry, no more prejudice, no more bullshit. It's high time. Enough time has passed and all the 'they are just friends waaah' or 'they are just brothers waaah' or 'It is unintentional waaah' type of takes need to GO! Naruto fandom is your space to explore, take advantage and have your fun and thrill too. YOU own it. Go crazy. Saturate the fandom, open up the discussion, destroy the prejudice and dumbfuckery, confront whothefuckever you wish, and do it with relish because you are right and they are wrong. Period.

Do it. Be bold, be strong, be proud. You have the fandom's support, passionate support too because that's what this story engenders in responsible fans. Confront them without hesitation if that's your vibe and smack them in the face with panels from the manga and explain them too, they are quite easy to decode. Just know you can do it because that's what the story is supposed to be, you can't miss it. High time to change this heteronormative narrative. Naruto is a gay love story and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

#naruto #naruto fandom #sns #sasunaru #narusasu

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lenaellsi · 9 months ago

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it's honestly a bit odd to me that so many people have jumped on the 'aziraphale will be pulling all the strings and playing politics in heaven' train. like I think it's true that the metatron is underestimating aziraphale's intelligence and ability to disrupt the second coming even while separated from crowley, but I also think the idea that aziraphale is going up to heaven with a clear idea of how he's just been lied to, an understanding of how much danger he's in, and a plan to stop it is a huge reach.

frankly, aziraphale is very vulnerable to manipulation. I'm thinking now of neil’s post with the diary entry from before the edinburgh minisode where he was duped by two humans, the whole thing with the nazis in 1941, and his sponsorship of shadwell's various obviously fake agents (sergeant milkbottle, etc.). he's not nearly as savvy as fanon tends to portray him. he takes people at face value, especially people he thinks of as Good. (that's not a dunk, btw--I find these things endearing, and a sign of aziraphale's innate wish to see the best in people. I just think that sometimes the BAMF protective aziraphale of fanon overshadows the slightly more naive aziraphale of canon. and honestly, I also think TV aziraphale is just a bit softer than book aziraphale, though he is capable of stepping up when it counts.)

and he's a bad liar! I know it's a meme in the fandom that aziraphale lies all the time, but he doesn't like it, and he's bad at it. he gets nervous and comes up with terrible excuses and the only reason he ever gets away with it is because the people he's lying to are idiots (gabriel), have their own agendas (god, the other archangels), or trust him to be honest (crowley).

aziraphale's real strength is his ability to take sudden, completely unexpected action. that's one of the things that crowley admires most about him. "he's unpredictable," is what he says to nina, and it's true! aziraphale's greatest moments of rebellion have always come from spur of the moment decisions, not intricate plans. (if anything, crowley is the planner--the arrangement and the thwarting of the apocalypse, their two longest cons, were both his idea.)

aziraphale gives the sword away because when he is forced to make a decision under pressure, he tends to land on the side of rebellious kindness. shielding crowley from the rain in eden, lying to gabriel to protect job's family, defying the quartermaster and returning to earth via possession during the apocalypse, blowing up his halo--he does these things because he's following that same impulse. when aziraphale has time to over think, he frets and fusses and is paralyzed by indecision. (or worse, he falls back on what heaven has taught him.)

TL;DR: I don't think aziraphale has any sort of grand plan other than a generalized "make things better," and I certainly don't think he is planning to betray heaven. he might try to come up with a plan once he figures out how bad things are going to get, but my bet is that what will actually disrupt the second coming is an absolutely bonkers off the wall decision that no one, crowley included, could ever predict. and I think it’ll happen, as it usually does with aziraphale, just after he accepts a difficult truth that fundamentally shifts his worldview—in this case, his final rejection of the idea of “good” and “bad” people, and of the entire morality system of heaven and hell.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #final fifteen #aziraphale #long post #been in a meta mood lately sorry #to be clear people can write whatever they want. playing with characterization is fine and good in fanworks #but also I do wonder if the fanon built over four years between seasons is seriously impacting the way people read the final fifteen #and because I suspect it will come up: his smile in the elevator reads as Aziraphale’s denial smile #the one where he plasters it on as a ‘this is fine this is what I want I am a Good Angel’ reaction #‘I’m not trapped in here with you you’re trapped in here with me’ is not a thought aziraphale would ever have about himself #he doesn’t think about himself that way #crowley thinks of him as a force to be reckoned with for sure. but aziraphale is not that sure of himself

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dreamingofep · 6 months ago

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Forbidden Love💔❣️

Fandom: Elvis - Elvis (2022)

Prompt: Reuniting with Elvis was supposed to be the highlight of your summer, but with unresolved tensions between you two, things aren’t what they seem. [Fem!Reader]

TW: Cussing, TENSION!!!

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 4.1k

A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to my new fic! Very excited to share this with you all. 1969 was quite a year for Elvis and just needed to write what he was doing that summer🤭 Enjoy!

If you'd like to read any of my other fics, start here or Ao3! Hope you enjoy and message and comment what you think.

June 15, 1969

You grumble sitting here, trying to figure out if you both would get by this month. It’s always been a little tough, that’s just how it’s been lately. But the last few months have been exceptionally rough. You were waitressing at the local diner seven days a week. Before that, you’d usually be out auditioning for any film or TV show. You practically lived on a movie set since you were so busy with different projects. It was your dream you’ve chased your whole life and felt you had what it took to be in Hollywood.

You moved here when you were twenty-four, hoping to get attention for a new movie in the works. It was a lot of hard work, but you did get roles. You got a few lead roles or even things like background work.

Things changed when you married John. He was once so loving and supportive about your dreams, but drastically changed once you two married and moved in together. He was much more distant and borderline cold when he talked to you. You were always so excited when you got a new audition or had a really good day on set. Your mood would instantly get deflated when he talked about how he thought a certain movie was silly or how he thought you could spend your time doing more useful things.

It always felt like a punch in the gut when he said those kinds of things to you. You pushed yourself to ignore such negative thoughts though. Nothing was going to stop you.

You met John because he was friends with Elvis in the 50’s. You and Elvis were friends before John ever came around. But things changed between you and Elvis and you didn’t know exactly what happened that caused such a riff.

You were surprised being in Hollywood at the same time Elvis was, you never ran into each other. There was a part of you that missed your old friend. He was always so much fun to hang out with and you were sure he was the same way as he was years ago. There was always this hope when you booked something on the MGM lot that you would run into Elvis and you would catch up like no time has gone by. But your naive way of thinking only made you more disappointed as the years went on.

When you saw articles about Elvis in the paper or saw his picture in a magazine, it made you miss him more than anything. It would be nice to have a friend when times get tough but he never reached out.

Your family knew the Presleys and had a similar upbringing in Memphis. You would have dinners together sometimes and got along with Elvis since you were the same age. He was exceptionally handsome and all the girls loved him. You saw he had beauty inside and out though. He was more than just a pretty face. You didn’t pursue anything romantic with him. It was easier to just be friends. You thought of him fondly and wanted the best for him, that’s all you could do.

As the years have gone on, you found yourself unhappier than ever. With the financial strain looming over your head, you weren’t going out for as many auditions as you used to and your life felt so empty without art. John was out all day searching for new jobs lately, straining your relationship further. But you understood he was trying to make more money and pick up any job he could find. You tried to take as many shifts at the diner to help him out and not make him feel like the financial responsibility was all on him.

It was time to do something about the current situation you’re in, you just weren’t exactly sure what to do. You go to turn on the radio, trying to drown out the incessant worried voices that were ringing in your head. You turn the volume knob up and one of Elvis’ songs came on. That voice always put you in a good mood and the idea popped into your head; maybe Elvis could help him find a new job or hire him personally?

“When was the last time you talked to Elvis?” You ask over the music.

“A few weeks ago, why?”

“You should call him, see if he has any recommendations for jobs for you,” you say nonchalantly.

“I don’t know… I don’t want to overstep,” John says shortly.

“You’re one of his oldest friends, I don’t think he’d be upset,” you try to reassure. John sighs and goes into the other room to make the phone call, closing the door behind him.

It was true, they had known each other since they were teenagers and kept in touch quite often. It made you a little sad he never asked about you or made an effort to talk to you. So many things changed when he got drafted. You lost contact with him and when he came back to the States, he was trying to be a big Hollywood star. He didn’t have time for you anymore. It stung, but you knew he’d be just fine without you.

John came back into the room quietly, looking uncomfortable.

“He said yes,” he says surprised.

You look at him a little shocked, “he said yes to what?” You ask.

“He said I could go and work for him,” he says a bit relieved.

“Oh my gosh, that’s great!” You say.

“I start tomorrow. He wants us there at his Hillcrest house in the afternoon,” he explains. You were so happy this was happening.

You were relieved Elvis was doing this for him! This could change so much! Depending on what Elvis could pay him, your lives might be much different! Maybe you both wouldn’t have to struggle and worry so much about finances. Perhaps you can start acting again… there were so many possibilities with this new turn of events. Your life might get a lot better because of all of this.

You couldn’t pinpoint why you were so nervous to see Elvis again but you were. A part of you felt like you did something wrong and that’s why he stopped talking to you. You knew that was all in your head but you couldn’t shake the feeling. You must have changed your dress a dozen times thinking the color didn’t suit you or it wasn’t the right thing to wear, but you were running late and had to settle for this dress you were wearing. It was a simple, black and white sundress with cherry blossoms scattered on the lower half. John was waiting in the car for you, impatient as always.

You lived about twenty minutes away from Elvis’ Hillcrest home. You had never been to this house before but heard it’s really beautiful. It was up in the hills and was in a relatively quiet neighborhood, perfect for a rock and roll singer to be left alone.

You pull up to the iron gates with a red brick driveway and wait for someone to open the gate for you both. The car stops and you pop out of the car quickly. You felt like a child with this unwavering curiosity. The front had a beautiful entrance and so much lush greenery and flowers surrounding the long driveway. You felt like you could be in the countryside rather than in the heart of Los Angeles with all this vegetation. The smell of jasmine and pine filled your nose the longer you stood out here and never knew more of a heavenly scent. The house was pretty modern and very clean from the outside.

“Do you wanna come inside or are you just going to stand there?” John says.

You snap out of it and cordially smile at him even though his tone ticked you off. You walk quickly to the front door with him and John opens the door, letting you step in first.

The foyer was spacious with gold picture frames of Elvis and his parents in black and white. You missed them, they were always so sweet to you. The white marble floors shone brightly and the sound of your clicking heels echoed through the front entrance. The dining room was on the left with a large black table with matching chairs around it.

You peek around the corner and see suede-white couches in the living room with a large mirror above them. This place felt warm and inviting, like a home. It reminded you of Graceland in a way, how the second you walked through the door, you felt

safe and cared for.

“Hey EP,” John says gleefully.

You quickly turn around and see Elvis walking into the dining room. You have to hold your breath as he walks in because you barely recognize him. Or you forgot how good-looking he was.

He walks in confidently wearing a yellow, silk button-up that was unbuttoned to the middle of his tan chest and black slacks. A black leather belt was fastened at his waist and his leather boots echoed in the halls. He let his hair grow out longer than you’ve ever seen and it looked quite nice on him. Elvis reaches his hand out to shake John’s hand and smiles as he greets him.

You stand there frozen, unable to move any closer to him. They start to exchange words and hug each other. As Elvis pulls John in for a hug, he makes eye contact with you. His gleeful grin turns into a wide-eyed stare in your direction and his smile fades. Your heart thumps wildly, not sure what to do or say after an expression like that. Elvis pats John’s back and continues to look at you with a blank expression.

“Hey y/n,” Elvis says low.

Jesus that voice, it did something incomprehensible to you. It was so sultry without even trying.

“H-hi Elvis,” you say timidly.

The longer you stare at him, the more you realize how long it’s been since you’ve seen him last. He no longer has that baby face but he somehow still has that boyish innocence strewed across his face when he looks at you. He looks so much taller now even though you’re sure he hasn’t grown that much taller over the last ten years. Elvis had this newfound confidence in him that you had never seen before. It was like he glowed from the inside out. There was a magnetism to him that you’ve never encountered by just looking at a man. His entire presence was overwhelming and had you awestruck.

Elvis turns back to John and puts the smile back on his face before facing him.

“It’s so great to have you here man. You should have called sooner. Why don’t you go outside and meet the rest of the guys? I don’t think you’ve met everyone yet. They’ll explain more of what to do, I’ll be there in a sec,” he says positively.

John makes his way back to the front door and nods his head at you. The door closes gently and you slowly turn your attention back to Elvis. He still has that same look on his face. He walks cautiously over to you, inspecting you carefully. The closer he gets to you, the more details you can see on his face. His eyes looked so blue and mesmerizing. His gaze was so intense you had to look away or you might find yourself blushing. He stops a few feet away from you, keeping a comfortable distance between you two.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?” He asks you. You meet his eyes and haven’t been this close to him in ages. You feel like you’re eighteen again and completely tongue-tied. You smile sweetly at him.

“It has. Over ten years since I’ve seen you,” you say. You can’t help but sound a bit sour when you say that. Puts into perspective how much has changed over the years.

He hums softly to himself, his eyebrows furrowing, “you’re right… I haven’t seen you since that night,” he says a bit smugly.

You freeze, you hated how he put so much emphasis on that sentence. You brush that off and try not to show that his words got to you.

“Yeah, at your going away party. That was the last night I saw you before you went off to Germany,” you throw back. “And I somehow haven’t seen you since.”

He stared blankly at you, clearly affected by your calloused words. You turn away from him, walking over to the living room to look at the different decorations but to also hide the smug smile that formed on your face.

“I’ve been busy,” he mumbles behind you.

"Mhmm," you hum.

You look at the side tables that had a couple of different pictures of Elvis with friends and family. There was a particular one that caught your eye. It was one with Elvis and a girl who had her arms around his neck. She was pretty with big eyes and long blonde hair.

You suddenly get this weird shiver down your spine. You remember you only feel that way when Elvis is behind you. His presence was suffocating and everyone knew when he walked into a room. Call it a blessing or a curse, but he just had this indescribable thing about him. You had to be in the same room as him to understand.

You don’t have to turn around to know he’s behind you when you talk, “Who’s this?” You ask pointing to the picture frame.

“Uhh, that’s uhh- that’s Dianne,” he says a bit shyly.

“Mmm… your girlfriend I assume?” You say smartly.

“Yeah, I guess so,” he says flatly.

You finally turn around to face him, confused by his tone.

“What do you mean ‘you guess’?”

You can tell he’s slightly agitated by the question. He stares at the picture for a moment and looks back at you.

“We have… an agreement of sorts. We go out together any time we know there’s going to be cameras. It helps my image you know?” He says shortly.

“No, I’m afraid I have no idea what you’re talking about. I thought you either have a girlfriend or you don’t,” you say a bit smartly.

“Well, when you’re me, and you’re thirty-four, it’s not a great look to be a bachelor anymore. At least it looks like I’m happy to the public and with a woman I could possibly marry in the future.” He says it like he rehearsed it a thousand times.

“Oh. I didn’t know… I’m sorry you have to force something like that,” you say gently. “Do you like her though?”

He shrugs his shoulders, “I can enjoy her company sometimes. But deep down, I couldn’t care less if she’s here,” he admits.

You were taken aback by his comments. You once thought of him as a romantic but it seems something deep inside him changed…

You don’t know what else to say about that and as you look into his eyes, you see the hurt that resides there. There’s some voice telling you in the back of your head to comfort him. To just reach out your hand and place it on his chest. He was your friend after all. You hated to see anyone hurt especially one that was Elvis. But you turn to sit on the couch and to get some space from him, knowing you might be here for a while with John doing whatever he’s doing outside.

“And how’s married life for you?” He asks a bit sarcastically.

You look up at him almost shocked at his tone. You were married to one of his closest friends after all.

“It’s fine,” you say shortly.

“Just fine?” He asks. “You’re not living your fairytale life?” He quips. You didn’t like anyone poking fun at you and especially your personal life.

“Why do you care Elvis? Things are fine and that’s all you need to know,” you snap.

“I was just curious since he called me in a panic,” he says nonchalantly, leaning back onto the couch with his arms stretched out along the back of it. He stretches out his long legs and your eyes trail up and down them. Jesus, he was so distracting....

“And he said things were rocky between you two,” he tells you.

You were shocked at this admission! What do you mean things were rocky? Well, you understood how it might be seen like that. You both were the most distant you’ve ever been since getting married. You just blamed it on working so much that you didn’t make time for each other and the overall financial strain.

“That’s really none of your business! What happens between me and my husband is none of your concern. We’re doing our best,” you say with your voice wavering slightly.

He nods his head as he looks at you with a softness in his eyes.

“Then tell me, how are you really? Are you okay?” He asks.

The way he looked at you was so tender, so sweet, but you didn’t like how he talked about your relationship. His words got under your skin so easily. It was like he was waiting to laugh at John and everything your life had turned out to be. You couldn’t let it go, it bugged you too much, and knew you were fighting fire with fire if you kept going.

“You’d know how I was doing if you picked up your damn phone or read the letters I wrote to you. Did you even receive them?” You snap.

He stares at you like he wants to snap too but he holds it together.

“Yeah… I got them…” he says coldly.

Your heart sinks a bit, hurt that your suspicions were right all along. He received all the letters you wrote to him while he was off in Germany, worried about how lonely he’d be by himself there. Even after he came back to the States, you continued to write to him but with no avail, you never got a letter back. John got his phone number when he was back at Graceland and you tried to call him to see if he’d at least talk to you but he would never take your call. He was always ‘busy’ or wasn’t there at the house. After a while, you gave up. You got the message he didn’t want to talk to you. And now, the message is extremely clear. He doesn’t want anything to do with you.

“You got them and you didn’t bother to write me back?! Even just one phone call telling me you don’t have time to talk would have been better than hearing radio silence from you all these years!” You say agrivated, raising your voice slightly. He stays silent, looking at you with a straight face and a heated gaze.

You stand up quickly, anger taking over your better judgment. “Are you going to answer me?! Or are you just going to sit there and not respond like you always have?” You spat. He continues to not say a word. The silence was deafening in here and you wanted to leave as quickly as possible. You don’t have any more patience for him.

You start to walk out of the living room and can’t help but have the last word.

“You know I was dumb enough to want to be in a movie with you? I was this close to being in one with you a few years ago. It was between me and this other girl. The producers loved me. They said I had it. Then last minute, I was told they were going in a different direction. I guess it was a good thing I didn’t have to deal with your piss poor attitude,” you tell him.

His expression stayed stark and his gaze didn’t waiver. “Yes, I know about that. I’m glad something was done about it. It would have been an unenjoyable experience for both of us,” he snarls back.

You were taken aback by these hideous words. You couldn’t believe he said such things to you. It was mean and uncalled for. How did he even know you were up for a movie with him? Who told him?

There was no time to ask these questions because your patience had run dry with him.

“You’re unbelievable. I can’t believe I thought I missed you after all these years,” you say as you start to walk away.

You only make it a few steps before you feel him grab your wrist and still you. You grunt in surprise and quickly turn back to face him. He was so close to you. Being this close and looking up into those luring eyes was intoxicating. You could feel your breathing hitch in your throat as you stood there unable to speak.

“What,” you squeak out weakly.

“What could you possibly miss about me hmm?”

You can’t speak, he’s looking at you like he could devour you.

“What parts of me do you miss?” He says low. You could feel the blood rush to your cheeks and the heat coming off of him makes you feel lightheaded. You can’t breathe the way he keeps looking at you.

This was low for him. How dare he bring up such things. Especially things that were so far in the past.

“Fuck you. How dare you-,” You seethe in his face but he cuts you off, taking another step closer.

“Tell me. What do you miss? My lips? My hands?” He challenges. He gently lifts his other hand and uses the back of it to caress your face. He barely touches your skin but when he does, it’s like an electric shock running through you. It’s the most calming and electrifying feeling. You can’t help but lean into his touch.

“Elvis,” you warn, looking defiantly into his eyes.

He takes another step closer, chests almost touching. He turns to the side of your face, his lips inches away from your ear.

“You probably still think of my hands when you touch yourself, don’t you,” he breathed.

You feel your mouth go dry and your heart shudders in your chest. You have nothing to say, nothing to refute that with. You slowly pull your head away from his and look into his eyes again. They were serious and commanding. They made you want to crumble right there at his feet.

You don’t notice it right away, but both of your chests are heaving slightly as you’re standing there. You didn’t realize your hand was squeezing his bicep tightly. His arm felt toned underneath his shirt and you inadvertently squeezed it tighter.

Nope. You can’t do this. That ship has sailed a long time ago.

His bedroom eyes drift down to your parted lips. Neither of you move, it’s too tense to say anything but you can feel the way he wants to keep you in this moment with him for as long as possible. He bites his lip sensually and you hear his breathing hitch. He was so distracting, how he was drawing attention to his plump lips. You remember all too well how those lips felt when they crashed into yours…

“Hey EP where are ya?” A man’s voice belts from the front door.

You quickly take a step back from Elvis, desperately needing space from him. You heave for breath and brush your hair off of your face. You can’t believe you got so flustered by him. It was cruel what he did.

Looking back at Elvis, he had a smug smile on his face. Oh, it made you so angry. Was this all a game to him? You hadn’t been here for more than ten minutes and he was trying to dig his way under your skin.

“I’m comin’ hold on,” Elvis yells out. He smirks at you as he lets go of your arm. His eyes trail over your body once more and sighs softly.

"I'll see you around, honey," he murmurs.

You hold your breath once more. That word he just used made you feel weak and indefensible.

Honey...

Lord, he hadn't called you that name since...oh... yeah, you remember the last time he called you that. That night seemed like a lifetime ago but now that Elvis brought it up, it was in the forefront of your mind. You remember everything so clearly and catch yourself thinking about his hands...his lips... uh oh.

This isn't good.

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