#this is explicitly not about BBC Merlin and Arthur knows fics

[snaileer]

If you’re sick of tired tropes clap your hands!

👏🏼👏🏼

If you’re sick of overwritten pity parties, clap your hands!

👏🏼👏🏼

If you’re sick of overused tropes, and you just want something new, if you’re sick of tired tropes, CLAP YOUR HANDS!

👏🏼👏🏼

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Alana Bloom

she kissed will graham in s1 and dated hannibal in s2 so you can imagine how bad the fandom is to her. fun fact she's in a canon lesbian relationship now tho <3

The show literally does the yaoi treatment of victimisation for the benefit of the male leads to her. And then the fandom mistreats her

I'm not sure if this even counts but...Literally a victim of Yaoi along with several other characters in-series, but she got it almost the worst. The entire show is just people dying because the two male leads are OBSESSED with each other and can't be normal about anything. Alana Bloom, actual PhD of psychology and consultant to the FBI, got kissed by one guy, fucked and fed people-meant by the other, and pushed out a window by the murder husbands' forced-surrogate daughter. Like. Actual victim of several crimes caused by yaoi. She's probably one of the few examples of a Yaoi Victim overcoming and evolving past her yaoi-related trauma into a stronger person/character, though: She gets an entire character overhaul and a hot, millionairess for a wife. She kills a man with an eel. She becomes head of the BSHCI, effectively putting her in complete power over her jackass cannibal ex-bf. She does quite well. Unfortunately, the rest of her screen time is spent trying not to get killed in the ongoing fallout of Hannibal and Will's fucked up courtship, but hey. Can't have everything. I don't even know if I'm saying anything valid here: the fandom loves her, but I supposed her position outside of the Hannigram relationship relegates her to a non-subject in a lot of Hannigram-focused fanwork. She's an 'obstacle' to their relationship only in the sense that Will had a crush on her once that went nowhere and Hannibal started an actual relationship with her SPECIFICALLY to piss off Will. I guess she's also a more literal obstacle as Hannibal's jailer and Will's friend who's constantly pointing out to him that Morals exist and he should try having some of those, maybe.

Gwen

She stands in the way of Merthur, by far the most popular ship in the fandom. I haven’t seen it as much in recent years, but back in the days of fanfiction.net she got slut shamed so badly for having been romantically interested in three of the male characters over the course of the show, which is just... normal straight woman behavior, meanwhile Merlin crushed on pretty much every woman who even looked at him in the early seasons of the show and got no hate for that whatsoever. I barely even read Merthur fics (not because it’s m/m, just because certain aspects of their relationship don’t appeal to me) but the “Gwen is a slut” attitude was so pervasive across the fandom, even fics that weren’t explicitly anti-Gwen would “jokingly” call her a slut. I even saw a few fics demonizing her for having an affair with Lancelot despite the fact that SHE WAS ENCHANTED when that happened, and surprise surprise, Lancelot (who was also under the influence of magic) got none of that hate, and neither did Arthur, who got enchanted to fall in love with multiple women over the course of the show.

Canonically Arthur Pendragon's love interest and an important and interesting character in the show who's completely shoved aside and ignored in favour of the medieval bbc yaoi ship. At best they put her and Morgana in Lesbian Timeout (ie make them get together and then reduce them to wingwomen at best because god forbid we focus on the medieval bbc yuri). Justice for Gwen right now!

She is prince Arthur's love interest (eventually wife). Arthur is MADLY in love with her. He tells his tyrannical father he would give up his crown to be with her (she's a servant in the series). He forgives her cheating on him with Lancelot (!), which in the show is caused by an evil enchantment, but the characters never find out about it. He chooses her time and time again. His love for Gwen is literally never put into question. Many fans insist to this day that there was no chemistry between Gwen and Arthur compared to Arthur and Merlin. Arthur isn’t even particularly nice to Merlin most of the time! The funny thing is that Merlin himself ships these two so hard and does everything he can to help them get together!! Gwen & Arthur are adorable and too many fans were drunk on the yaoi fumes to see it. ARTHUR WAS A SIMP FOR GWEN.

[dollopheadsandclotpoles]

Been trying to highlight fanfiction with aspec elements on my sideblog @aroaceineveryplace because I think we need to see more of that in fics.

And while I've always had aspec-coded characters in my own fanfics (literally from even before I understood the terms and realised I myself was aroace), this year for ace week I thought I would do a bit of self-promotion and highlight some of the fics I've personally written over the years with explicitly aspec characters.

The Usurper - BBC Merlin (Gen fic about Merlin and Arthur's friendship, featuring an aromantic asexual Arthur) Arthur had long understood a truth about himself that no one else had. Namely, that he was not suited for marriage. He had been a lonely child to begin with, but he had discovered that love and passion, the romantic type that seemed to be the crux of ballads and poems, was not in his cards. He did not understand them. His father had pushed women in his way — noble ladies and princess alike — and Arthur had done his duty, taking them for walks in the palace gardens and giving up his time to indulge them in conversation, but it had never amounted to anything but gnawing anxiety in the pit of his stomach. In the past he had been driven to adoration by sorcery, but in his right mind it seemed as unfathomable as the science Gaius was always blathering about. Green-Eyed Monster - The Raven Cycle (T-rated fic, with Adam/Ronan romance, featuring a demiromantic demisexual Ronan) “I…,” Ronan inhaled sharply, then let his breath out through his teeth, like a smoker. “You know how Declan cheats, and I hate it? It’s not that… I’m morally against it. Like… cause of the church, or whatever. It’s… because I never understood how Declan could cheat. Like, it doesn’t make sense to me. Why would you want to be with someone you don’t know? How could you be with someone you don’t know?”  “Well… It’s sort of… biological, isn’t it?” Adam asked. “The attraction.”  Ronan was looking at his feet, bare on the marble floor. “Yeah… I never got that. That… attraction thing. It just seemed like… if you love someone, you’d only want them. That’s it.” He tugged at the bands on his wrist. “I’ve never looked at a stranger and… wanted them.”  To Sir, With Love - The Raven Cycle (T-rated fic with Adam/Ronan romance, featuring aromantic asexual Matthew) “Remember how I said…,” Matthew hesitated, then turned away from Adam. He took another moment before saying anything. “Remember how I said I don’t want to date girls?” Adam took a moment to compose himself. “You want… to date boys?” he asked, quietly.  That Adam could deal with. Adam had first hand experience with that. But Matthew turned back to him, his expression still raw. “No,” he said. “I don’t want to date anyone.” “That’s fine,” Adam said. “I thought it was fine,” Matthew said. “But all the boys in my class are obsessed with girls, you know? All they talk about all the time is how they want to kiss them and hold their hands, and do… other stuff. And they talk about which girls are pretty, and which girls are hot…,” Matthew ran a hand through his curls. “I don’t really get any of that. Like… I can see that some girls are pretty, but that’s it? What am I supposed to do if they’re pretty? They’re nice to look at… but like… I don’t see why my friends have to talk about it all the time.”

If you have fics with ace and aspec characters that you would like to share, please tag aroaceineveryplace and I'll reblog your post to it!

[alex-the-bringer-of-chaos]

To those who may have come across my side of tumblr, you might have seen the "my insert fandom hcs." Now those hcs usually limit themselves to my personal interpretation of the characters queer identity (if I hc them as being queer in anyway), and the relationships dynamics I would give them, be it romantic, sexual, qpr, familial, platonic, etc. Sometimes, I make a separate post with what I imagine would be a little bit of how the non-existent fic/au would work if I were a fic writer.

So, I thought it would be interesting to make a post about why I changed some of the dynamics, with examples, focusing on the ship matter. The reason being, my hcs post have shipping matters, they have queer hcs, they sometimes go against cannon (not in the this character is canonical aroace, sime I'll make them straight *cough* fuck you Riverdale *cough* Jughead Jones has always been aroace in the Archie comics *cough*).

The reason I make them is because I find it hard to recall how I interpret the things around me, and while there is an undeniable canon in media, there is always going to be a fan perception. In these cases, knowing what is a hc and what isn't helps with understanding that yeah, that's just your take, doesn't mean it's necessarily true or that everyone thinks alike. So writing it down not only makes my head less messy with so many thoughts, some more relevant to my day to day life than others, but it's also a way of sharing my little view that I wouldn't be capable of considering I'm not a fandom content creator (call it the: "love the arts, suck at it" curse) and if this serves as a way of contributing, even if it's an odd one, so be it. Those hcs tend to change with time since they truly are my view of the characters as of now + the canon identities they have (cause I ain't pulling no Riverdale in this house).

Now, with that introduction to this essay done, you will be getting the previously mentioned ways I view different canon romantic and/or sexual relationships in media, how it influences the way I perceive the show in and out of its own universe, how that affects the hcs I have and finally how dynamics that are not canonically or explicitly romantic and/or sexual relationship become so in my hcs.

There are those romantic and/or sexual pairings I see made canon in media, and I'm like: "Why tf would you do that, this is garbage," cause it ruins everything; like Five Hargreeves and Lila Pitts in s4 of The Umbrella Academy.

Let's be honest: They should not have ended up together, especially not in a season that has 6 episodes instead of their normal 10. They work so much better as frenemies, coworkers, and siblings. It made no sense with the dynamic they had with each other and with the other characters, and it just ruined everything.

Lila has such a good relationship, if complicated, with Diego, though I do think they work better as a couple in a serious relationship, but who don't get married. And Five had Dolores and his family, both things/people he loves tremendously. So yeah, garbage decision by the creators and producers, with it being obvioushow much the cast disliked such pairing.

There are pairings that are very important for the show, both in and out of the universe, but failed due to flaws in the writing; like King Arthur Pendragon and Queen Guinevere "Gwen" Pendragon in BBC Merlin:

Angel Coulby does an amazing job as Gwen the entire show, so does Bradley James with Arthur, the couple has some very sweet scenes, and the importance of Angel, a black woman, playing Queen Guinevere from 2008 to 2012 goes without saying.

However Gwen loses so much as a result of the relationship in the show and the writers fail to keep her as her own person, making her fall down the love interest and perfect queen as the seasons progress, losing her individuality and sacrificing interactions with other characters, such as her friendship with Merlin and, most importantly, her relationship with her brother Elyan, who is played by Adetomiwa Edun, a nigerian actor, get push to the side.

All of these to say, Arthur and Gwen's relationship is integral to the show, both for in a and out of the story reasons, and I would hate it to be taken away from the canon. However the flaws in the execution and not being a fan of those choices lead to me preferring them as a qpr, with her being appointed as queen, since the importance of their relationship cannot go understated, but the form it is in the show isn't my preference, same as her being an amazing queen. On a romantic/sexual sense, since this is what this post is about, I much prefer Arthur and Merlin as a pairing and Gwen with either/both Lancelot and Morgana.

Now, there are couples who work incredibly in the show, and maybe they stay together till the end, or maybe they don't, but not only do they serve their narrative purpose, but they grow with each other, have their own independent relationships and individuality, which is just everything. Sometimes, I'm hooked straight away. Other times, it takes a while. For me, the perfect example is Jayce Talis and Mel Medarda from Arcane:

Now, I didn't ship them from the start, my error, but they are amazing together, and I love them so much. Now, if you go into my Arcane hcs, you will see I put them in a kind of Poly relationship with Viktor, but the dynamic of that is as follow to me: Jayce and Mel are dating, Jayve and Viktor are in a soft romo (which is a type of qpr, but with more romantic elements to it), while Mel and Viktor are in a qpr.

Now, the show makes it clear how important Jayce's relationship is with both Mel and Viktor, but there are differences in their dynamics, and seeing it through this types of relationships make more sense to me than anything else. And, while Mel and Viktor's canon relationship is far from a qpr, I do think those two intellectual and caring individuals could have had a very interesting relationship under this dynamic, especially with the difference, since their intelligence and caring nature are very different from each other.

Finally, I'll come with the dynamic between two characters who aren't canon (as far as ik), but whose dynamic through the whole manga and amine got me wrapped and in love with them, being Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru from Jujutsu Kaisen (funnily enough, this is the only show out of all of these I have not written my hcs for).

It's everything. Even if you don't look at it from a romantic perspective, the importance of their relationship goes without saying and their dynamic as best friend both when they were on the same side or on opposites adds so much to their characters. Of course, they are not just each other, but without their relationship being as deep as it is, they would be less and, more importantly, Jujutsu Kaisen would be less. There's a reason the Hidden Inventory arc is my favorite, alongside the movie, because of how much they add to everything.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 2

Propaganda Under Cut

Gwen

She stands in the way of Merthur, by far the most popular ship in the fandom. I haven’t seen it as much in recent years, but back in the days of fanfiction.net she got slut shamed so badly for having been romantically interested in three of the male characters over the course of the show, which is just... normal straight woman behavior, meanwhile Merlin crushed on pretty much every woman who even looked at him in the early seasons of the show and got no hate for that whatsoever. I barely even read Merthur fics (not because it’s m/m, just because certain aspects of their relationship don’t appeal to me) but the “Gwen is a slut” attitude was so pervasive across the fandom, even fics that weren’t explicitly anti-Gwen would “jokingly” call her a slut. I even saw a few fics demonizing her for having an affair with Lancelot despite the fact that SHE WAS ENCHANTED when that happened, and surprise surprise, Lancelot (who was also under the influence of magic) got none of that hate, and neither did Arthur, who got enchanted to fall in love with multiple women over the course of the show.

Canonically Arthur Pendragon's love interest and an important and interesting character in the show who's completely shoved aside and ignored in favour of the medieval bbc yaoi ship. At best they put her and Morgana in Lesbian Timeout (ie make them get together and then reduce them to wingwomen at best because god forbid we focus on the medieval bbc yuri). Justice for Gwen right now!

She is prince Arthur's love interest (eventually wife). Arthur is MADLY in love with her. He tells his tyrannical father he would give up his crown to be with her (she's a servant in the series). He forgives her cheating on him with Lancelot (!), which in the show is caused by an evil enchantment, but the characters never find out about it. He chooses her time and time again. His love for Gwen is literally never put into question. Many fans insist to this day that there was no chemistry between Gwen and Arthur compared to Arthur and Merlin. Arthur isn’t even particularly nice to Merlin most of the time! The funny thing is that Merlin himself ships these two so hard and does everything he can to help them get together!! Gwen & Arthur are adorable and too many fans were drunk on the yaoi fumes to see it. ARTHUR WAS A SIMP FOR GWEN.

Iris Hawthorne

Ex gf of the MC i lover her ok she is sweet

Phoenix wright’s canon ex girlfriend. Extremely underappreciated because people ignore her to make narumitsu work better

poor girl gets slandered by the fandom so much for being the main character’s ex. i know she was used primarily for the plot but cmon everyone’s just so mean to her. she was manipulated into doing terrible things by her sister whom she loves so much and she didn’t know any better because all she wanted was to have a family. it’s not an excuse for her actions but it’s just so tragic that she did everything for her sister just for her to use her for her own personal gain

[nooowestayandgetcaught]

you know what i never get to celebrate me enough!! so im gonna list some of personal fave explicitly rated fics ive done!!! because i can!!!

Midnight Visitor (Marta Cabrera/Ransom Drysdale, Knives Out -- 1000 words)

Ransom drops down next to her, his expression softening. "You know what helps me sleep?" he murmurs, leaning in. Marta's cheeks redden, but she doesn't tear herself from Ransom's gaze. "A good, old-fashioned, spine-tingling… orgasm."

Holding On Too Tightly (Shauna Shipman/Jackie Taylor, Yellowjackets -- 707 words)

Years after Jackie's death, Shauna fantasizes about Jackie in Jackie's old bedroom.

Wait No Longer (Oliver/Elio Perlman, Call Me By Your Name -- 3688 words)

Oliver returns to Italy quickly when he gets Professor Samuel's call: Elio is pregnant with his child.

Surprise Me (The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov, Shadow and Bone (TV) -- 4274 words)

Alina pegs The Darkling. That's it. That's the story.

Favor For a Favor (Katsuki Yuuri/Detroit Hockey Team, Yuri!!! on Ice -- 1694 words)

In order to have the ice rink, and without any protest from the hockey team, Yuuri agrees to a consensual gangbang.

Looking Glass (Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan, Once Upon Time -- 16276 words)

It's called The Land Without Magic, and it's all of a life Emma has ever known. It's fair from perfect, but she knows there's no such thing as wardrobe portals or true love's kiss. She adamantly denies it even when getting herself transported into Regina's world. Magic, however, belongs to Regina as common instinct, and slowly, it becomes her source of rage and fear. Years go by between visiting realms, filled with joyful and bittersweet emotions, until Emma is forced to watch Regina's darkness unravel.

Death is Only the Beginning (Merlin/Arthur Pendragon & Gwen/Morgana, BBC Merlin -- 15229 words)

BBC Merlin/The Mummy crossover. Thousands of years ago, a man named Khaldun, named by others for his immortality, breaks into a guarded crypt, seeking to resurrect the man he loves. To avenge a cruel, grievous murder. In London 1920’s, Arthur has been a wanderer and a victim of death. He walks in the long shadow it casts over his life since his mother’s cancer, and Uther’s plane accident. At twenty-four-years old, Arthur encounters one more adventure, discovering a mysterious puzzle-box in Cairo. Within it is the location of Hamunaptra, City of the Dead. He joins Gwendolyn Thomas and his half-sister Morgana, along with others, journeying to the rumoured treasure and a sacred, ruined city. They unknowingly awaken a powerful curse, and the entombed, hellish creature responsible for the end of days to come. Arthur’s memories and his past life slowly return to him, until the mummy may not be what it seems.

i have

fics