#this is literally femslash fanfiction

[girl4music]

Just read the ‘Last Chance’ script again.

It literally is a piece of femslash fanfiction.

It’s both a musical and a doppleganger episode and so you can only imagine the gay shenanigans that would happen between the lookalikes that are actual lovers.

From Xena Wiki. Source: https://warriorprincess.fandom.com/wiki/Last_Chance

“Scheduled for February 2001, but never shot. This was the infamous Sappho episode. Written by Robert Tapert and Melissa Good, it was to be directed by Mark Beesley. K.D. Lang apparently agreed to guest star.

Synopsis

Sometime during her life as a mortal, Aphrodite "stole" Sappho from the Muses because she wrote, like, such kickin' love poetry. The Muses got back at Aphrodite for the "kidnapping" by casting a spell on Aphrodite's son. The spell was one of celibacy, which, of course, is a major bummer for Aphrodite. Aphrodite decides to get her son "un-celibate" by getting him to go to Lesbos to groove on some Sappho love poetry.

The problem is that Sappho (Renee) has "lost the muse". She and her partner (in *every* sense) Morai (Lucy) have been fighting a great deal. Having creative differences, in other words. Sappho hasn't been giving Morai enough credit in the partnership, and in the end, Morai (a meek woman) leaves, during the time that they're getting ready to put on a play called "Love Bites".

Aphrodite, seeing her plans for her son going seriously awry, goes to two people she hopes will help her. Xena and Gabrielle. She breaks in on a jam session with Xena and Gabrielle. Gabrielle is trying to write a song, and Xena keeps on putting her two cents in. Gabrielle finally asks Xena to just shut up and sing it already. And we hear the first lines of Last Dance.

Aphrodite "pops in", interrupting them. She then asks them if they'd fill in briefly for Sappho and Morai while she goes after the two to try and get them back together. After a few moments, Xena and Gabrielle agree to Aphrodite's scheme, and travel to Lesbos.

They get there, and of course, everyone mistakes Gabrielle for Sappho, and ignore Xena (masquerading as the meek and mild Morai). The play is down to the last moments, almost ready to be put on, but the ending isn't even done. Xena and Gabrielle need to stall until Aphrodite can get the real Sappho and Morai back so that they can finish the play that she hopes will break her son's celibate spell.

Mistaken identity hijinx ensue, with Gabrielle loving the accolades and Xena getting more and more pissed off because people are treating her like a somewhat brain damaged dog. Xena and Gabrielle get into a small (minor) tiff because Xena is upset, but eventually things get back to "normal".

Meanwhile Sappho and Morai have taken a canoe/camping trip into nature in order to work out the kinks and get the muse back so they can finish the play. Unfortunately, that flops, as does the canoe, so Sappho and Morai wind up back at Sappho's home, where they run into, literally, Xena and Gabrielle. However, it's kinda funny the way it happens.

See, Xena, walks into Sappho's boudoir thinking Sappho is Gabrielle. Sappho is instantly entranced by Xena's bearing, and *especially* her leather. Xena is a bit taken aback by Gabrielle's forwardness, especially since they've just had another small arguement and Xena left the party.

Meanwhile, the REAL Gabrielle is in another room when Morai comes in (thinking it's Sappho) and wanting to make up with her partner. She takes off Gabrielle's boots and offers to read her some poetry before they go to bed. Poetry? Gabrielle wants to know where Xena (who she thinks Morai is) got the henbane and how much did she take?

Both sets of doubles eventually find out that they're not who the other thinks they are, and all four collide in the hallway outside the bedroom. After the surprised introductions are over, Sappho offers to have Xena (who she REALLY likes) and Gabrielle to share the bed with she and Morai. Gabrielle declines and Xena and Gabrielle go into Sappho's workroom, where they settle down for some "pillow talk". (In the script, and yes, they're sharing a bed).

They each talk about how they knew the double wasn't who they thought they were after a short time and then go to sleep. Xena wants to leave, figuring that with Sappho and Morai back, their mission is done, but Aphrodite convinces them to stay on a bit longer. Which is a good thing, because Sappho and Morai argue again and Morai runs away.

The play is ready to go on with Senhel and Avian in attendance, but without Morai (who is playing several parts), what can be done? In steps Xena to fill Morai's spot while Gabrielle runs off to find the runaway poet and to convince her to return to Sappho's side.

Then the Donkey Show part of this ensues, with all the disco tunes you heard about. It's as confusing as the real Donkey Show is, and I really can't do it justice, but basically it's about three couples (each played by Lucy and Renee) some who love each other, some who want one but the other doesn't want them back.

Aphrodite thinks this play, sampling the "many flavors of looooove" is just the ticket to get Senhel to see the error of his ways. They start out, but at first, Sappho is upset because while she *really* likes Xena, the reverse isn't true. Xena's not interested, and Sappho thinks she's falling down on the convincing job (to the audience).

They go along in the play and Aphrodite pops in again, and sees that her son is completely unmoved. Morai (who really DOES love Sappho) still isn't back yet, so Aphrodite pleads with Xena to "please, just fake it" with Sappho so that Senhel will get the picture. Faced with the alternative (failure) Xena decides to "fake it" and starts becoming more steamy with Sappho during the songs such as "Love to Love You Baby", "Knock on Wood", "Don't Leave Me This Way" and the like.

Gabrielle, meanwhile, has convinced Morai to give Sappho one more try, and brings her back to the playhouse just in time to see Xena pin Sappho to a set piece on stage and kiss the living daylights out of her. Morai is upset. Gabrielle is kinda upset. Senhel is falling asleep (because, obviously, what's going on up on stage is not love, just lust).

Morai begins to sing "I Will Survive" to Sappho and then leaves. Gabrielle leaves with her. The audience begins to leave.

"WAIT!" shouts Xena, and tosses her chakram to close the doors to keep the audience from leaving. Then she begins to sing, to Gabrielle, the song they wrote together. Which, of course, is Last Dance. As she hears it, Gabrielle stops. Then turns. Then, as Xena continues to sing, she begins to approach Xena until they wind up holding hands and looking into each other's eyes.

Then, as the song fades, they hug. Then they look over at Senhel, who is STILL unmoved. So then, and this is from the script:

“Xena and Gabrielle kiss with deep and sincere passion.” Everyone stares, entranced.

When they finally come up for air, Senhel is on the floor, the spell broken because he has finally seen true love. As the song begins again, Avain kisses Senhel, Morai kisses Sappho, and everyone is happy again.”

[girlcockholmes]

obsessed with seeing what gay feelings i had in high school. very funny

[exhaustedwerewolf]

Prompt: Stars

Fandom(s): The Owl House (Cartoon)

Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda

Summary: Everything is different in the Human Realm. Even the stars.

★

some lumity h/c for @femslashfeb day one! I won't be doing every single day, but I really liked the prompt list, so I'm hoping to participate as much as I can. as always, my askbox is open if anyone has any requests!

[haveyoureadthisfanfic]

I'm aroacespec (and honestly confused about where I fall on that spectrum, but I do know I'm sex/romance favorable) and tbh my relationship with shipping is weird.

There are some ships I look at and I'm like "how can you see this as anything but romantic" and there are other ships where I'm like "okay but why do we have to ship them, can't they just be friends?" and it's almost always the total opposite of what the fandom majority's view is. For example, my Sonic "how can you see this as anything but romantic" ship is Espilver, and my "okay but why do we have to ship them, can't they just be friends?" ship is Silvaze.

I will say that something I've noticed is there tends to be a double-standard with allo people (specifically cishet people) when it comes to ships. You get a ton of "why can't they just be friends" with slash and femslash ships, but then those same people will ship a het pairing that look at each other in a single frame. I don't know if it's something that's more obvious to me because I'm gay myself (or even if it's more obvious because I'm aroacespec specifically), but it's weird to me. I choose to look at it this way: if this was a het ship with the same character dynamic, would people still say "why can't they just be friends?"

That's not to say aroace people are in the wrong for looking at a pairing and saying "can't they just be friends? Why do we have to ship them?" but with a lot of cishet people specifically, it feels like there's a lot of people perpetuating a borderline homophobic double-standard. I get it when it's something like Scott and Jay from Ninjago, but so many masc characters' dynamics are canonically given homoerotic or even just romantic undertones (a good example of this being, in my opinion, Sonadow; there's not an almost 3 and a half hour long Sonadow iceberg video on YouTube for no reason. As far as I'm aware it's the longest Sonic-related iceberg video on YouTube that covers exclusively official content) which is why people tend to gravitate towards those ships. I could do an entire analysis on why gay ships tend to have bigger followings than het ships but if I did this would get too long lmao. I will once again point to the Sonadow iceberg video though.

I generally use shipping to explore my own relationship with my aroace-ness, and usually I do that using characters I either headcanon as aroace in some way or who are canonically aroace, because I can relate to those experiences. It's kinda weird to me to see other aroace people acting like doing that is bad or wrong, because usually that's what people are doing, and even if that's not what's going on, fanfiction doesn't affect canon.

There is no right or wrong way to participate in fandom (unless you're harassing people and/or actively putting people in danger), no matter what you identify as.

Basically: People should be allowed to do what they want, if something bothers you that bad there's nothing wrong with blocking a person or tag.

(I might've gotten off subject a few times, sorry lol)

Okay, that thing about blocking tags inspired me to look through my blocked tags to see what ships I've blocked and here's my petty aroace thoughts on all of them without naming names lmao

Fanon het ship. They've never given any indication that they know of each other's existence. Her girlfriend is right there.

Canon het ship. Had the chemistry of two wet paper bags. Literally just shoehorned in there because god forbid any story exist without a romance subplot.

Semi-canon het ship. I'm mostly neutral about them. Just unnecessary.

Fanon mlm ship. Literally brothers?? I don't care that one of them is adopted, they grew up together?? As brothers??

Fanon het ship. I don't care what you call their relationship. You can call it professional, platonic, familial, just please don't call it romantic.

Semi-canon het ship. Again, completely unnecessary. God forbid a man convince a woman to become a villain without there being ~attraction~

Fanon het ship. She is 14?? And he is like 30??

Semi-semi-canon het ship. He did have a crush on her when he was, like, 14 but he's a grown adult now and she's the most lesbian-looking woman to ever exist and they're the most found family siblings to ever find a family

Fanon het ship. LET MEN AND WOMEN BE FRIENDS. LET MEN AND WOMEN BE PLATONICALLY MARRIED.

Fanon mlm ship. I personally see them more as brothers. But whatever floats your boat.

Semi-canon het ship. Just really shoehorned. I don't like the woman very much. I liked her more when she was allowed to be a badass without being a ~flirty badass~

Fanon mlm ship. Again. Adopted brothers. Gross.

Canon het ship. I've seen many things from this director. He's a creative man. He couldn't think of a way to move the plot forward without a smooch?? He couldn't create a series that didn't have an unnecessary love triangle??

Semi-canon het ship. The man isn't coming back for S2 and boy golly gee am I glad

Fanon het ship. Not my cup of tea. Just let them be friends

good lord I have a lot more ship tags blocked than I thought

anyway, this is your daily reminder to just block stuff you don't want to see and move on

[cookie-sheet-toboggan]

What even is fanfiction?

I was just informed that a fic I wrote for a gift exchange last year was read in a media studies class. At first, I was elated (and honestly still am to a degree) that my writing made it into a classroom setting to be discussed, but then it got me thinking.... fanfiction is a gift (in this case, very literally), we don't make money off of it, we do it in hopes of engaging with people about the media we love. This particular fanfiction had zero engagement with the contents of the story, it barely even had over 100 hits. And yet, someone took my story, removed it from the interpersonal fandom community and put it into a (presumably, for profit) education setting to be discussed independently of me, the author (as well as the recipient of the story). I was not even given the courtesy of being asked to use it (yes, I understand that permission was not needed from a legal standpoint and it seems like I was cited, but it still would have been nice), the teacher didn't even so much as leave a comment on the fic (the only people who left comments were the recipient of the fic thanking me, and one of the students informing me about the event). Like, I'm not some large YouTuber or something making money off my content with discussions going down in my comments section, I'm just a rarepair femslash fanfic author with a tiny readership who writes between my full-time job.

Idk what I'm actually trying to say here, I feel like I've got too many thoughts and feelings about all this that I can't sort them out. All I know is that I'm both flattered and insulted right now. Fanfiction has breached containment and I'm uncomfortable.

Also, apparently, the class's topic of discussion was "fandom theories" and my fic was used as an example.... Dude, my fic is not a "theory" it's a story. Wtf?

[femslashhistorian]

3 Great Lae'zel/Shadowheart AUs (femslash fic rec)

Shadowheart and Lae'zel are two characters (companions) from the roleplaying video/computer game Baldur's Gate 3. Their ship name is Shadow'zel and there is a good amount of femslash (F/F) fanfiction for this ship on AO3: Lae'zel/Shadowheart (link)

The three fics I've picked for this fic rec share a few common themes: They are modern setting AUs and fit broadly speaking into enemies to lovers category. Plus: there is a bonus (non AU) rec.

You don't need to know anything about the game's canon to enjoy these fics and there is no danger that you might get any spoilers for BG3. Of course, it is helpful if you have seen a few pics / gifs / snippets to get a feeling for the vibes between Shadowheart and Lae'zel.

(There is also an interesting short article about what Shadowheart's voice actress things about this ship.)

I really love their dynamics in these three fics and the tension and bickering are delicious.

----

Mrs and Mrs K'llir by justasimplelesbian

Complete, 1 chapter, 22k words, 2024

Teen and up; Graphic Depictions Of Violence

Summary: Mr and Mrs Smith AU

Shadowheart and Lae'zel is the focus, Astarion, Karlach, and Gale all make like very minimal appearances.

Note: there is an additional smut chapter (in a separate fic): link

I guess technically you might get spoilers rather for the movie Mr and Mrs Smith (2005) than for BG3.

But to be honest is has been many years since I saw the movie and thus, I don't know how closely the plot of the fic follows the plot of the movie (according to the author's notes it is pretty close). What I do know is that the author did a great job to fit Shadowheart and Lazel into this AU and a few other BG companions also show up and fit in perfectly as well.

This fic is probably the most literal enemies to lovers fic of the three, as they actually get to fight each other, however technically they start as a married couple.

I really enjoyed this fic. Highly recommended.

----

the gith in 14G by yeahitshowed

Complete, 1 chapter, 3k words, 2024

Teen and up; No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary:

The door swings open just as Shadowheart slams her fist forward to knock again; the apartment’s occupant, a githyanki woman in workout gear, catches Shadowheart’s wrist to avoid being decked in the face. “Whatever you aim to sell me,” the githyanki says testily, “I hold no interest, and I dearly hope whatever two-bit company you shill for files for bankruptcy.”

“Are you being murdered?” Shadowheart says, yanking her wrist free. “Or possibly doing the murdering?”

The githyanki cocks her head. Each of her long ears sports a line of piercings; the little hoops clink together. “Hm. A unique sales strategy. I will listen to your pitch if you speak quickly.”

-

Modern AU; Shadowheart moves into a new apartment, and the githyanki next door is infuriatingly loud.

Told mostly from Shadowheart's POV, the author did a tremendous job to capture her frustration and annoyance towards Lae'zel. Switching the POV in the last scene to Wyll is working very well. What Shadowheart does to pay it back to Lae'zel is kind of relatable and also very funny.

Loved the fic. Highly recommended.

----

put her canine teeth in the side of my neck by yeahitshowed

Complete, 1 chapter, 3k words, 2024

General Audiences; No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary:

“Hey!” shouts an unfamiliar voice. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Maintaining her grip on the wriggling German Shepherd, Lae’zel looks up. A woman’s stalking over from the benches, arms tightly crossed over a deeply un-dog-park-like goth getup.

“Thwarting an unsportsmanlike assault,” Lae’zel says. “The dirty one baselessly attacked – ”

“Yes, she’s playing,” the woman says. “How dare she. Can you let go of my dog?”

-

Meeting at a dog park, Lae'zel and Shadowheart's dogs are instant pals. (Lae'zel and Shadowheart, not so much.)

In contrast to the other two fics, the enemies to lovers aspects are handled without violence, however this does not mean that the bickering is not deliciously strong. A nice change of pace and a very cute fic. The names of the dogs also gave me a good chuckle. Highly recommended.

Also check out the cute fan art that inspired the fic.

----

Bonus rec: non AU

to feel love (like a sinner) by mermaiddrunk

Complete, 1 chapter, 9k words, 2024

Explicit; No Archive Warnings Apply

Lae’zel’s breath grows heavy. “You feel it too?”

“Yes.”

“Tsk’va!” Lae’zel swears even as the knowledge makes her sick with lust. “I believe we have been poisoned. The wizard’s confections—”

Shadowheart lets out a small manic laugh devoid of any real humour. “It’s not poison,” she says with a trembling voice. “I think they were aphrodisiacs. I assume one or two are sufficient to do the job.” Lae’zel isn’t sure if Shadowheart is going to laugh or cry when she says, “We ate an entire bag.”

Note: There is also fan art inspired by the fic (tumblr)

----

Notes:

This was cross-posted to tumblr and my WordPress blog. Check it out for more femslash fanfic recs.

Image credits:

Pexels from Pixabay

Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay 1 2

Ralf Seemann from Pixabay

[tiktaalic]

It literally does say a lot about society thag m/m not only outpaces f/f by a stupidly large margin but that so much of it is like. Little Romance Stories. Or long epics. In either scenarios they are experiencing plot beats and characterization be it real or made up. And then f/f tags not only a tenth of the size. But there’ll be like. Say. 300 fics. 278 of them they pop into the stories above to say MALE FRIEND you are being SO RIDICULOUS just tell him you like him! And that is the extent of their involvement. And The other 22 fics are straight up porn. I’m no saying there’s no m/m porn I’m saying they’ve got a solid 30/30/30 split between Good Fanfiction / college aus that will later be stripped to be turned into a gay romance novel / porn. Whereas with femslash everyyyyy time it’s an 80/20 split between mentioned as background in m/m fic to. Porn

[femmesandhoney]

i mean... fandom spaces (which are the reason why certain shows go on for seasons and seasons and why certain characters have more fanfiction written about them than others) have an overwhelming majority of straight women

i wouldn't take it personally 🤷‍♀️ it sucks but theyre just never gonna find themselves gravitating towards lesbian stories or female characters because they're into men and wanna see stories about them instead. straight male viewers usually don't care because they find it too woke or the cast too bad looking

i would say the only times femslash gets anything is in rare fandoms where people make some noise about it (the 100, once upon a time, supergirl 💀) so i don't think quality is necessarily the problem here but rather the fact that lesbians/bi women aren't vocal enough about it

well i wouldn't say you're wrong, but by default ofc straight and bi women will be more populous than lesbians in any space. but i do not think sexual orientation usually stops people from consuming interesting or good media lol, like many lesbians watch gay shows or movies if they are good. there is just too many people who literally just think women and by extension lesbian women are not interesting enough as a concept to get invested in our sole stories. i do think its just weird and disheartening that lesbian shows specifically are always held to impossible standards of "get million of viewers and ten emmys or else you deserve to get cancelled". i feel usually the audiences of these shows are vocal, but often the studio itself is the one that struggles to properly support it and get it advertising. i feel studios backseat with lesbian shows and just hope word of mouth is enough, knowing they're more riskier investments. even with a solid fanbase, if its not an instant success its goodbye :/ what else can ssa women do bruh

[merryshiparchive]

this is tenuously related but im doing some research on what i can find of spiderflowers comments left in livejournal communities- the stuff account purges cant wipe. spiderflower was a bisexual(?) (she talks about liking both men and women, although she ids also with the word "lesbian") woman, she cared a lot about how fanfiction was written and criticized the use of heteronormativity in femslash. (link separation) she didn't like when fandoms became all about yaoi shipping and dismissed female characters- she's talked about finding sexist nge fans annoying. (her favourite character is asuka!)

i know this isn't directly related but i'd like to know what influences lead to spiderflowers assumed creation of merryshipping and what lead her to write 5s bad company since i cant ask her, can i? and maybe youre curious too. control f "spiderflower" to get to her segments of the linked journal entries.

for those who havent read it, heres her fanfiction.net bio, which also advertises her bisexuality openly. (her bisexuality for usopp and nami god she's the most relatable woman on earth)

now this will never happen. but if you ARE livejournal user spiderflower fanfiction.net user guardian1 please i love you so much im literally your biggest fan please can we talk i have so many questions

[findroleplay]

Looking for writing partner: SwanQueen/OUAT

Hi, I have been writing for years and I mean YEARS. I am a femslash shipper/writer that is wanting to find a writing partner or two! :) I am in my 30's and would prefer a writing partner that is over the age of 18 comfortable with writing mature/adult content.

Literacy: Semi-literate, third person, just like you're reading a book with decent spelling, grammar and punctuation. No one is perfect. Be willing to contribute to the story and move it forward with ideas, story plots, dialogue, etc. I love lengthy writing but also don't mind short paragraph interactions. I want to be able to know what your character is thinking and feeling in our writing.

Fandom: Once Upon a Time

Pair: (fxf, mxf, mxm, ccxcc, ocxoc) F/F

Character(s): I write as Regina Mills and am seeking an Emma Swan. I will also write with anyone who writes as Maleficent. I want an Emma Swan writer for sure.

Ship(s): Swan Queen (Emma x Regina), Dragon Queen (Maleficent x Regina).

Triggers: I don't have many, if you've seen the show Once Upon a Time then you should have a good understanding of the characters and what they go through.

Plot ideas: I have plenty of plot ideas but love a good discussion with brainstorming. The more exciting, agnsty, the better.

Where: I would love discussion to be on Discord or through here but we can write in Google Docs or on a roleplayer website like RP.Me or RPLives

Other: I love to write and miss it. I do write fanfiction so if that is also your jam, cool! I'm pretty easy going and pretty active. Please, someone, come write with me some SwanQueen feels.

-

[girl4music]

It’s true.

Xena is literally a show that became visual fanfiction.

2 fanfiction writers (probably more) were approached by Tapert and Co and were told to write episodes for the show. And those scripts were produced and made into canon real episodes for the actual aired show.

Melissa Good got ‘Coming Home’ and ‘Legacy’ and would have also gotten ‘Last Chance’ written with Tapert too if it made it to production before the network chimed in to censor it by telling them to scrap it and leaving us ending up with ‘Many Happy Returns’ which was Liz Friedman and Vanessa Place.

Katherine Fugate got ‘When Fates Collide’ which I’m sure no Xenite on Earth could tell you they hated.

God knows what that unproduced script for the original cut of the episode ‘Fins, Femmes & Gems’ looked like where they fully outed and canonized Xena and Gabrielle as lovers by way of an obsession spell.

All I know is it was written by Tapert and 2 other writers and it was X&G FEMSLASH fanfiction.

The man was insanely supportive of canon X&G and if it wasn’t for his hang up with X&A, he would have told the studio to screw themselves and gave the shippers everything they wanted because he was also a shipper. I’m serious… go read that Sappho musical script. It’s insane. Xena wears a dog collar with a leash.

That stuff is far too out there for me personally but they went there. They fully intended on going there.

If it wasn’t for censorship… we would have had it all.

Whether we wanted it or asked for it or not, he’d do it because he was a crazy man who didn’t give a shit.

❤️❤️❤️

We say Lucy and Renee were the biggest shippers of Xena and Gabrielle. But nope - Tapert was a nutball.

[goodvein]

Avatar: The Last Airbender (cartoon)

One of the best stories ever told - period - end of sentence.

And one constantly beset by terrible spin-offs and knock-offs, and something the producers could not replicate in subsequent shows, INCLUDING their own sequel.

The show has absolutely brilliant worldbuilding, until the retcons in their own sequel show.

In the Avatar world, there are 4 main races, each named after the four Indian elements: Earth, Fire, Wind, Water.

Rather than being token aspects, the differences come down to deep philosophical differences, to the point that the world views might not be reconcilable. The Earth Kingdom is Imperial China. They value stability above all else, and as such it is exactly what they have.

The Water Tribes are a combination of Inuit with coastal China. They are fluid and free flowing, and the thing they value the most is love, (both platonic and romantic). Their deep love is what holds them together as they sail the roiling seas.

The Air Nomads value freedom, to the point they don't raise their own children. They travel the world, never having a home, but never wanting one either.

The more spiritual members of each nation gain the Bender of their element. This has them manipulate the energies of their bodies, (i.e. moving their bodies themselves), to manipulate the elements around them.

But, of course, it's a wide world. Every - single - village they come across has their own culture. They have their own laws, their own customs, their own clothing. And a third of the story is just having them explore their world. Their life is one of adventure. Literally. They spend as much time exploring their wonderful world as they do on character development as they do on the primary plot.

While the story was intended to be watchable by children, it contains a great number of heavy, thick, and deep themes, such as genocide, filial piety, and uncontrollable power. Sometimes the right answer is military force. Sometimes the power of diplomacy is what is needed. Sometimes it's trust, in others, or yourself.

The main characters are wonderful, loveable, flawed, and dynamic.

As are the villains.

As are many of the background characters, some of which became absolutely iconic.

For anyone who's seen the show: "MY CABBAGES!"

A:tLA is one of the shows where your favourite character might be a one or two shot character, and this is not in any way an insult to the main characters. This is because even one-shot characters are often done with as much love and affection as the main characters are.

All of the background writing is done in Chinese, by expert calligraphers. The martial arts are impeccably researched, beautiful, intrinsic, and true. The stories are epic and adventurous. The characters, big and small, beautiful, loving, and flawed, to the point you want to them.

An uncle of one of the main characters provides life advice that many fans return to in times of need.

That said, the sequel series is at best, petulant, the comics are femslash fanfiction, the M. Night Shyamalan movie is horrifying, but he actually improved it, the live action remake removes pesky things like worldbuilding, character development, and... honestly, fun. And The Dragon Prince, made with a lot of the same productions staff, is a completely hollow world that has world building that would have caused a bloody civil war before the show even started.

Well, lightning cannot strike twice.

[stealthnoodle]

Genuine question, how do you improve your fanfiction writing skills? I got a new special interest recently and I want to write about it. I haven't worked on anything in a decade and it feels like my skills have regressed. I miss writing fanfiction (especially femslash) so much and I want to get back into it.

There are probably as many different approaches to this are there are people who write, but here's what works for me!

One thing I do think is universally true is that the only way to get better is to keep putting words down, even if you're frustrated by the quality of them. (And it is so frustrating to come back to writing after a long break and feel like you've forgotten how to string words together. I have been there! It's the worst!) So Step One, I think, is to figure out what you need to do to make it easier to brain dump. Skip over scenes you're not in the mood to write. Use placeholders like "[Witty reply]" or "[does something to show she's angry]" if you get stuck. Don't worry about using too many adverbs or repeating yourself.

If you're someone who struggles with anxiety when you sit down to write (hi, it's me), take steps to relax yourself so that your brain's filter won't get in the way too much. Maybe you put on some motivating music. Maybe you exercise your way into some endorphins first. Maybe you're me and you've mastered getting high enough to chill out without chilling out so hard you end up staring at the ceiling for an hour. "Write drunk, edit sober" doesn't have to be literal advice, but I like the spirit of it.

Once you've got a bunch of words to work with, pat yourself on the back! Maybe later you can revise your brain dump into something you want to show other people. Maybe you hate it and just want to do an autopsy to understand why. Either way, you've done something valuable just by getting those words out. Go through them and make notes, even if your notes are as vague as "This character's voice sounds a little off" or "This scene doesn't fit here." I like to highlight chunks of text I feel especially iffy about in green. And on the flip side, even the biggest mess is probably going to have something you like enough to repurpose somewhere else. I write in Scrivener, and all of my projects have a "Bits and Scraps" file for this purpose. 10/10, would recommend.

Speaking of which, "Kill your darlings" is terrible advice. Stash your darlings away for later. I have written a truly ridiculous number of words that never ended up turning into a story I could be satisfied with, and being able to reframe my thinking from "Ugh, what a waste of effort" to "Wow, that was a lot of great practice, and now I've got a document full of turns of phrase and jokes and plot points I can recycle" has made a huge difference for me.

My other tip is to spend time deconstructing other people's writing in your brain to understand why it works. Some people don't enjoy doing this when they're reading for fun, and they're probably better off trying this on a reread; I am the kind of weirdo who will stop in delight when I come across something I find effective and rotate it in my mind like a 3-D Tetris block. (As a messy bitch who loves writing out of sequence, I'm always on the lookout for especially smooth pacing and transitions that I can try to emulate.) When you read fics with characterizations that you like, try comparing the characters' speech and actions to their canon selves and see if you can trace how the author extrapolated from them; when you read fics with characterizations you don't like, see if you can articulate to yourself why they feel off to you.

Hopefully at least some of that wall of text is helpful, lol. Good luck, anon! I am rooting for you to make the girls kiss!

[lexicals]

ooh ooh 🎮 I love knowing about characters hobbies owo

Heehee thank you!!

I will answer for njoki cause she's the main and nerine literally does not do anything except work lmao

She is a Gamer. Her favourite series is sonic the hedgehog but she also likes platformers and racing games! Among others lol

I think she likes to draw even if she's not technically very good at it. She just likes doodling on stuff or drawing characters she likes sometimes

I was struggling for a third one but actually this girl definitely writes fanfiction. She absolutely has a massive archive of star trek femslash at LEAST

[bronanlynch]

ship ask meme: IBO ship or five of your choice

hi sorry I know you literally asked this long enough ago that we've started and finished another whole entire gundam show since then but

mika/orga

What made you ship it? I mean I was always compelled by their dynamic from the beginning bc mika is shooting people without hesitation for orga right away but. the moment when I realized how much I shipped it was when mika snaps orga out of his grief from biscuit's death by. picking him up by the collar with one hand and saying that orga needs to pull himself together and tell mika who else to kill. that's romance, to me,

What are your favorite things about the ship? the extremely intense level of mutual trust and devotion and also shared ideology is incredibly compelling to me, is the thing. a gay communist ship for gay communists. constantly thinking abt the bit where mcgillis tries to manipulate mika by implying that he's just going along with what orga is doing instead of doing what he actually wants and mika just completely shuts him down because they Are actually on the same page and they Do want the same things even if mika doesn't usually put his ideology into words the same way. also extremely tasty that for most of the show they're doing an extended gift of the magi thing where mika is turning himself into a weapon for the sake of the new world that orga is trying to build, and orga is trying to build a new world so that mika doesn't have to keep turning himself into a weapon

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? ok. listen. I know that the show did not handle mika's disability particularly well but listen. as a fandom we can and should do better. disabled people can and do have sex, I promise you mika can fuck without being connected to the robot

kudelia/atra

What made you ship it? well you see. sometimes I see a girl blushing and complimenting another girl and I simply think they should kiss (also I went in knowing that they were endgame so. I was primed to read into their interactions)

What are your favorite things about the ship? I like how often they're both like "so we're both in love with mika and also each other" and how they make it clear that they are all in love with each other and want to support and help each other. also I love the stuff (especially in season 1) that was like. kudelia being able to put words to things that she didn't necessarily have firsthand experience with but atra does like. theory gf x praxis gf. kudelia understands the relationship between imperialism and capitalism and atra understands that the first step to getting anything done is to feed people when they are hungry. also their ending is that one poem abt like. the long distance relationship between a city lesbian and a country lesbian (want by joan larkin) and I love that for them. I wish season 2/the fanfiction on ao3 had more abt them leading a revolution together bc I do think both of their perspectives are so important and I want to see them talking abt rhetorical strategies and supply lines while also kissing and making each other soup

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? I mean it's femslash I'm sure there's plenty of bad takes out there for me to disagree with. like I have beef with whoever edited the wiki so that atra is listed as kudelia's wife in the family section but not as a love interest. every time either of them express their love for mika they also reaffirm that they love each other in explicitly the same way, it's really not ambiguous

gaelio/mcgillis

What made you ship it? well the vibes were there from the start, even when I was just like "who are these evil bureaucrats" so I always thought they were hooking up. and then we got to the bit where gaelio gets choked out by mika and mcgillis like. strokes his back comfortingly?? and I was like. ah. I see. they are Dating.

What are your favorite things about the ship? I love betrayal <3 I love it when a guy's grand plan involves killing the one person he cares abt and both of them are super normal abt it <3 also I love that gaelio isn't dead and wants revenge and also that ein is involved bc I love mess <3 (edit: I wrote before we finished the show and looking back on this. oof. rip to past me for trying to maintain some sense of detachment and just having fun at the tragic mess. current me is genuinely sad like. I do love the betrayal and that's def in the top 5 things I like abt this ship but the top spot might have to go to that final confrontation they have and specifically the bit where gaelio won't let mcgillis say that he loves him because otherwise gaelio will forgive him because he is still So in love with him and would have done anything for him if mcgillis wasn't um. specifically designed to be a foil for characters whose whole thing is solidarity and reaching out to others, so the point of his character is that he was marginalized and abused in ways that specifically isolated him so that he can't bring himself to trust anyone else and that's his downfall. communism could have saved him and also his relationship with gaelio (somehow. despite gaelio being fundamentally a spoiled rich kid. it's fine they would've worked it out. anyway)

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? who could say what the unpopular opinions are. maybe that gaelio is also definitely dating ein but then again this is a show with canon polyamory so maybe the fandom is also more chill abt that

and for uh. equality I guess. one I don't ship. merribit/orga

Why don’t you ship it? not compelled by the dynamic where most of a woman's screentime is her trying to tell a man that he's doing everything wrong and needs to be more careful. they both deserve better than that and I'm glad the show stopped hinting at the possibility of them getting together

What would have made you like it? see above. what if orga could ever give a speech to try to raise morale so that everyone didn't die without merribit interrupting to tell him how fucked up it is that these kids are fighting. I assure you he knows that it's fucked up, it's his life, he's also a child soldier, does he literally ever look like he's happy abt going into battle. what if actually their relationship were abt her teaching him the value of spreadsheets. that would be romantic to me

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it? if I were still a straight girl I would have been obsessed with them in a very projecting way. I would be conceptually So into guy character I love x admin woman

extra bonus now that we're so extremely tieriapilled: lockon/tieria

What made you ship it? the bit where lockon puts his hand on tieria's shoulder and tieria Immediately calms down and smiles at him softly and everyone else on the bridge is like. what the fuck happened while you two were down on earth together. and then every single other time they interact after that

What are your favorite things about the ship? lockon constantly reaffirming tieria's personhood. the "you let that man too deep into your heart" line. the incredible potential of the mirrored character arcs they could've had if lockon hadn't fucking died, because god forbid a gundam show from the 2000s allow a disabled main character to actually live their life as a disabled person, where tieria is learning how to be a person and exploring what she wants her gender to be and coming to terms with no longer being able to do the thing that made her special/effective/valuable and also feeling guilty bc she thinks she cost lockon his eye and that saving her wasn't worth it, and lockon is figuring out how to live his life now that he's gotten his revenge and also coming to terms with no longer being able to do the thing that made him special/effective/valuable, and both of them learning that their worth isn't just in being a good gundam pilot in the specific way that they had previous been good gundam pilots

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? you already know my ten thousand word essay on the various ways tieria is (mis)treated and (mis)characterized but. y'know. fandom stop being shitty abt transfem-coded characters challenge

[castle-dominion]

fic ideas keep coming to me like visions of jeanne d'arc

transfem beckett, either castle clocks her right at s1 or castle keeps trying to get with her & she wants him too but there's smth holding her back, it's basically the show anyway except it's her trans. Alt, transfem beckett x esposito. Or maybe we keep the especkett that the show intentionally implied but instead of being the pre-series especkett or current especkett, it is a during-series caskett fic with a lot of past especkett. (I just love especkett & trans characters)

kanie, we need more kate/lanie fics, we need more femslash.

fatherless boys love jim, I want a fanfiction where esposito & castle spend time with jim or talk to him or get his advice bc he is castle's father in the eyes of the law & well he can be esposito's dad too.

ALSO WE DEF NEED SOME MARTHA/JAVI FICS. Huertas literally said he would love for esposito to be martha, joked that it would be a source of drama for the show. Yeah it's a little bit cracky, but it's also craic as in fun.

I have so many plot bunnies & little ideas & tiny things I want that are not big enough to be fics like that one fic I wrote where the extent of it is castle giving one of the other detectives champagne for, maybe they had their first kid or smth. Well & beckett staring at him lovingly & ryan or esposito (or even monty) coming up to her like heheheh she has a cruuuuuuush *jr high voice*