#to be clear this is not hate on fanon at all

[squeakyleftsneaker]

You survived, gj🫡✨️ Thoroughly enjoyed your descent into hell. Once again, just straight up ignore the fandom (even this message if needs be). Fandom is not what it used to be thanks to the hell shippers of this fandom, particularly the kl*ncers. The Lance stans are insufferable, and their hatred of any ship that isn't KL is well known. It's thanks to them that any ship in general they Personally Do Not Like gets labeled Literal Pedophilia/Basically Incest. Watching Voltron in its heyday was exhausting. Their hatred of Shiro and Allura are well documented, shoving them into Space Dad and Space Mom roles. They hated how close he was to Keith and would spam LOVE THOSE bROTheRs on every social media site to make people who never watched believe they were actually related and have that gutjerk reaction of disgust. They made a whole ass fuss over Adam because he was their ticket for getting Shiro out of the picture. That fuss is partially what led S8 to being delayed and rewritten, and the entire reason for that shit epilogue wedding. They celebrated Allura dying so Lance could be with his ~One True Love~ a heavily fanonized Keith to go with their langsty altean prince true black paladin bisexual king self insert.

SO I let this sit in my inbox for a lot longer than I care to admit. Mostly because I at the time didn't have a great picture for how this all played out, and to be honest I still don't.

I did kind of want to discuss this just bc I was having a somewhat related discussion about a totally different work of fiction (one I may talk about later on here though I am still not quite sure what to do with this blog) and It got me thinking about this message again. Now that I've read the whole dissertation about it, I am kind of intrigued by the mechanisms by which Klance as a ship became so popular.

This may have been the fact that I basically inhaled the whole show over the course of a month, but I never actually picked up on a significant focus on Lance and Keith's relationship in text, though I've been made aware that some of the marketing for the show did lean into it.

This is, however, not super related to what I did want to talk about which is more related to shipping and how we read fiction and interact with it in fandom. I don't think I'm UNIQUE in these observations, no observation ever is, but I do think that having now gotten a slightly better idea of what the show was (and wasn't) I feel comfortable at least getting a sanity check on it.

I, on a personal level, completely understand how someone, in particular someone young, would feel suspicious and RIGHTFULLY uncomfortable with a relationship between two adults with a large age gap who met when one of them WAS a young teenager. That is, IRL, a pretty clear red flag. I get it. I really do. I don't think you, if you're a teenager yourself, should "get over" that feeling of discomfort.

With that being said, I think it's also possible to see why other people in the fandom are, rightfully as well, very suspicious of a group of people who say they're endorsing pedophilia or incest. It's not NEW in queer spaces. It's, in fact, pretty much what ALL queer spaces and queer people put up with. That's what so much anti-queer language and extremely homophobic tradition uses as a bludgeon to devalue queer relationships, queer stories, queer spaces.

Particularly in media, queer stories that weren't allowed to just be queer in and of themselves have historically OFTEN been rejected through the lens of "they're like siblings" or "but it's such a huge age gap," and I think that it is an unintentional, but still real, reinforcement of that language and that policing of morality in fandom that have in general been used to denigrate queer people and queer people desiring to see themselves in media, to be represented, and to take works of fiction that are emotionally significant to them and read themselves into them.

So, yeah. Idk. I can see how particularly young people would be uncomfortable on a personal level with the idea of shipping Shiro with Keith or like. Any paladin. I get that. But I also totally and completely get how that same language and rhetoric around pedophilia and incest being applied to a canonically queer character is like. Very much reminiscent and rooted in a lot of homophobia within fandom. These are in tension with each other.

It is also true that there is a tension in that Shiro and Allura are both very much not white (yay), Shiro is our main character that is canonically queer, and to reduce them to "Space Mom," and "Space Dad," relegating them to non-romantic, background roles feels a little disappointing! Even if that's not the intended effect!

Perhaps more importantly though, they're not rooted in the text itself (which is where we get to the later part of this ask). I don't know a lot about Lance fans as a Culture [TM}, and I will probably not be entirely incorrect in saying that there's all kinds of flavors of insufferable fans (I am one myself), but I do think that this sort of thing naturally arises in a text that doesn't have a whole lot to interpret.

I've written before that Voltron lacks depth. Which means that if you're a fan, if you want to interact with the text, if you want to really discuss the characters, you run out of textual material very quickly. You have to read stuff into it. You HAVE to do a healthy amount of DIY characterization. And Lance is a very natural character to do this with because he IS our point of view character very loosely (though the show does a poor job with this). So I get how that arises, I get how the show itself encourages ~fanon~ over canon because there's so little in canon to talk about.

Sure, in canon for the first 2 seasons and in season 6, the relationship between Keith and Shiro is pretty narratively central. But the writers also totally drop it for ages on end and fail to explore it. I don't feel uncomfortable saying that pretty much every potential ship in the show requires a very substantial amount of eisegesis.

No ship is more textually supported romantically than the others. Not even really the only canon one between paladins, because Lance and Allura have very little reason to be together (deep sigh. Oh writers, oh writers what am I to do with this).

It's very natural for fandom to do fandom things. That's totally fine imo. But I think it's always worth remembering when interacting with others that fanon is. Not textual. You're playing in a sandbox, not doing sand castle archaeology. HOWEVER when showrunners and marketing teams interact with fandom, they reinforce the idea that fandom should influence canon. Choose your own adventure, but for a work of fiction. This is. Something that impacts pretty much all long-running works of fiction. Even if an author doesn't intend for it to happen, if you see it you're impacted by it. It's an inevitability of serialized works. You can see the fingerprints of "Give The People What They Want" all over later iterations of Star Wars.

Ultimately I think Voltron ended up as a perfect petri dish medium for The People [TM] to get what they wanted. Because there was very little in way of canon, because of the compressed timeline of production meaning that there wasn't a lot of time to THINK, and because they kept feeding into it.

But it's still fiction! It's always important to remember that fiction is, and always will be, NOT REAL! You can explore things in fiction that aren't possible in real life. Shiro and Keith or Keith and Lance or Lance and Allura or Shiro and Adam or Shiro and his rando husband who I'm sure he divorced in like a year all could've worked in some alternate reality (not to Slav it up) where the writing had had teeth and substance. And if exploring those hypotheticals makes you personally uncomfortable I get that! I don't read fanfiction (dear reader I am lazy) but if I did I would ESPECIALLY avoid reading Zuko/Katara fics because I feel really uncomfortable with the power dynamic of colonialism present there. That SAID, I don't think that that's a ship that shouldn't exist.

I don't think that shipping that, that wanting to explore that, that being curious about how that could've played out is BAD. It rarely is. And shutting out people looking to explore those dynamics is a great way to breed resentment, and a great way to reinforce the rhetoric of people who want nothing more than to shut Those Freaks up. Be wary of the language you use. Do not echo the language of homophobes. Particularly when it comes to your textual interpretation of a work with ultimately SUPREMELY LITTLE interpersonal depth.

Therefore I SHALL be writing a 500,000 word Shiro/Slav fic because you know what character DOES pull the drama out of Shiro? THAT'S RIGHT BABY! Because I need to be exceedingly clear here duh and obviously I am not gonna write that shit I am nowhere near funny enough for that

It's all made up, dawg! What you make up does matter, but how you handle it matters just as much, if not more! Voltron accidentally created a pro-colonial clusterfuck where none of the characters really know each other, but I'm sure you can see how the same exact elements of the show could've done something genuinely interesting and unique!

Fiction is, at its core, a place to explore things that aren't real. You can have some things that make you uncomfortable, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are fundamentally immoral. And I would caution greatly against shutting down exploration and creativity.

[rock-in-robins]

"Tim feels abandoned" "he's being ignored" "tim is jealous of the attention they give damian" "tim is-" tim drake would break out into actual literal hives at the thought of anything resembling an adult monitoring him, he'd starting hissing like a feral cat if Bruce tried to get involved with his business, he'd saw his own arm off if his family tried to demand he checks in more than once a month with heavily coded messages

[urfavoritemistake]

fiddleford mcgucket and things that go bump in the night

i understand why people like to explore scenarios in art/fic where fiddleford is aware of bill and has face-offs with him while he's in ford's body, or he works with stanley to try and get ford back post-portal incident, but to me personally? nothing beats the canon scenario where he is left entirely in the dark. because it's so horrifying.

you know the principle of horror that the monster is much scarier when it stays in the shadows than when it's revealed, usually towards the end of a story, because until then, it's left to the depths of your imagination to fill in the blanks? fiddleford chooses to not investigate those shadows, and even further enshrouds what he fears in darkness, because he's too scared of what he might uncover. he's the child who refuses to check for the monster under the bed and instead stays awake all night under the covers frozen in terror. that's the appeal of his character to me.

canonically, he doesn't know bill or stan exist. because ford refused to even trust his best friend with the knowledge of his muse, or anything about his past, even the fact that he has a twin. he actively hides childhood photos of him and stan from fiddleford. presumably, in college he kept all their conversations strictly to their interests and passions.

can you blame fiddleford for becoming infatuated with the guy? a talented, bright, yet mysterious individual. he probably longed to slowly break down those walls and gain his trust, learn more about this man who has made an effort to be unknowable. happily offered up stories of his own life back in tennessee, his family and aspirations, and prayed one day ford would do a little of the same. but he respected him too much to pry.

and then, when they reunite, he slowly notices his dear friend acts a little Off sometimes. unnatural. but how well does he really know him anyway? surely he speculates about the life ford is hiding from him, people he may be talking to, mental afflictions he may have, but he can't pin down anything due to how left in the dark he is, and his own fear of asking too many questions and overstepping boundaries. so he can only suspect. ultimately all he knows is there is some sort of evil afoot, and the machine him and ford are building will bring it about. all he has to go off of is his calculations and a vague dread.

until he starts making the choice to forget, which may be a little easier since there's already so much he knows he doesn't know. what's the harm in losing a bit more, especially stuff that is causing him pain?

and so he starts to lose his mind in turn, and he can feel it as it's happening. he knows he can't trust his deteriorating memories. but he can't stop because of the mechanisms of addiction.

and maybe one day, before everything is entirely gone, he's made aware that stanford pines, his ex-friend, has converted his lab into a tourist attraction. not one fiddleford can afford to attend with his increasing reliance on dumpster diving and beggaring to get by, mind you. but perhaps he gets a glance at the proprietor, this man claiming to be stanford pines, and feels that old sense of wrongness in his gut.

he's pretty sure that's ford's face, but something's off about it. and his hands. something's wrong with his hands. didn't ford have something with his hands? fiddleford didn't notice it at first in college until ford pointed it out because he's mighty insecure about it, but he's forgotten what it was. but honestly, how much of his own fragmented memories can he even trust?

he feels a shiver down his spine. perhaps it's best to forget about stanford pines altogether.

[weareallgonnaliveforawhile]

Y'all know those fanfics where Saiki is an asshole to Teruhashi or really rude to her until they start dating? Yeah, this is what I imagine what that Saiki meeting Canon Saiki would be like.

Canon Saiki: So do you still deal with Teruhashi?

Fanfic Saiki: I can not avoid that woman. The other day she was bothering me when a mob of her fans showed up so I teleported away and-

Canon Saiki, surprised: You revealed your powers to her?! I mean, her fans do suck, so I can understand panicking and teleporting the both of you away-

Fanfic Saiki: What? No, I teleported myself away and left her there.

Canon Saiki: You what.

Fanfic Saiki: I teleported myself away. Well actually, I was the one who kinda summoned that crowd so that she'd be too overwhelmed with them to go find me-

Canon Saiki, shaking with murderous rage: You what.

[cosmocove]

time to make your choice only you can be the one

[smartzelda]

Sorry guys I gotta speak my truth on this one

I'm not kidding when I say that I think that blaming shit media literacy from fans on shipping/shippers avoids the actual root of the problem to throw people you can easily throw under the bus (simply because it's not unpopular to consider people who post about ships or ship characters in media as having lesser or derivative tastes by default)

And here's why.

I think when you blame people who are "shippers" or "consume media through shipping lenses", the true root of it all is a mindset problem.

In actually, putting on shipping lenses can be helpful when trying to analyze a piece of media. When analyzing media you're supposed to approach it through a number of mindsets and put on different lenses (both to deepen your personal understanding of the media, and to pick it apart and see what you can find there (whether intentional or not on the author's part)), and different ships can be some of those lenses

When it comes to ships between main characters (for those who are genuinely willing to see what the narrative is showing with their relationship and what it's doing), there are times when analyzing it from a shipping lens may be helpful. As someone from KH fandom, I have seen people come to deeper understandings and pick canon apart in the process of analyzing a relationship that is genuinely integral to the story (platonic or not). I've also seen people get into rarepairs of characters who barely interact or who just suffer little screen time, and I've seen them come to better understandings of those side characters and how they potentially fit into the world of the media simply because people are now focusing on these characters and how they fit into the narrative.

Frankly, I resent the idea that the only way to truly objectively analyze a piece of media is by turning off the part of your brain that gets excited over relationships and individual characters. Don't get me wrong, that is a way to approach a piece of media and a valid one at that, but the truth is that we cannot be free of bias.

For instance, I was watching House MD with my parents circa last year. At some point I started heavily tuning into what was going on with House and Wilson's relationship. My parents, on the other hand, were largely watching casually. They're not thinking of character relationships or getting heavily invested in most characters, they're watching because they like watching. One of them in particular did try to analyze things that were happening in the show as they happened. However, when it came to the scene late in the series where House threw out Dominika's letter approving her American citizenship, my parents could understand that he was doing that because he didn't want her to leave, but not much beyond that. I ended up explaining to them that House's fake marriage for Dominika was an explicit parallel to when Wilson was living with House in the early seasons. Both situations started with House being none too happy about it but ultimately letting them stay, spending a considerable amount of effort getting them to leave/getting this situation to be finally over so he didn't have to deal with it anymore, and then by the time a piece of news comes through that would mean the person in question actually leaves, House hides this news as long as he can. Because he doesn't actually want them to leave and has grown attached. And by doing this he became a self fulfilling prophecy. By reacting to the truth of Wilson and Dominika leaving him the way he does, he seals his fate and they ultimately leave anyways. Maybe I ship Hilson, but becoming open to how their relationship was handled allowed me to transition to doing character studies and recognizing patterns/parallels that I wouldn't have noticed if I didn't particularly care about the characters or their relationship.

Likewise, I've seen mutuals complain about how people who don't like or don't care about certain characters often overlook these characters (what they're actually like and their place in the narrative), while the mutuals in question (by default) are able to come to deeper understanding of what the writers/story is trying to do because they care about this funky guy

You can't eradicate bias when you're engaging in media analysis, but you can consciously put on a range of lenses and observe the media through different povs with the goal of understanding the media better or bolstering your reading of it. And those lenses/povs can include focusing on specific relationships or the perpective of certain characters

And this is why I say it's actually a mindset problem. Shippers and people who have this one blorbo they like a lot aren't inherently terrible "fandom brained individuals" who are the root of media analysis problems. The problem only arises when people's readings/analysis of a piece of media are inherently restrictive/narrow and self centered. Your problem is with people who view a piece of media through a ship they like but don't keep an open mind about it, and whose "media analysis"/views on canon cannot be split from fanon and their comfortability levels. These are the people whose "media analysis" starts and ends with justifying their fanon as canon, whose views on media revolve around sorting characters and relationships into categories they personally enjoy rather than trying to understand what's going on.

Here's another example.

Here we have a fictional ship we'll call uhhhh...Blanebin. this fictional ship I made up on the spot for characters that don't exist named Blane and Corbin

Person A is super into Blanebin. They're part of the main cast of characters and canonically childhood best friends, so person A (as much as they enjoy fanart and fic) is also enjoying analyzing how narratively important to each other they are. Recently, Corbin started dating another character in canon, but Person A is enjoying watching how Blane is reacting to this. "Is this potentially a tell that Blane is jealous or is having complicated feelings about this? What if he was, how would that contextualize his behavior this season? Here's what I think based on how Blane dealt with explicit jealousy last season in a different situation". It's not impossible that person A is still missing further understanding due to their obsession with Blanebin, but at the end of the day this obsession has allowed them to start picking through the characters both in and outside this relationship. It has allowed them to see potential subtext and theorize on what might happen next with these characters' relationship. Not to mention that with addition of Corbin dating someone else, instead of trying to erase this fact or state that Corbin canonically isn't into that person, Person A is trying to factor in how Corbin's current dating life affects his relationship with Blane (irregardless on personal views on the nature of Corbin's relationship with the person he's dating).

Person B is also super into Blanebin. They really enjoy fanart and fic of the characters, love obsessing over their moments together, and just feel like there's really something between the characters. To person B, every moment between them is just further proof that the writers are ship teasing them. But Corbin getting together with someone else this season? Oh that pissed person B off. They cannot believe that even though Corbin and Blane are CLEARLY gay for each other the writers had Corbin get with someone else this season. Perhaps, they think, it was even a decision specifically made to spite fans. How evil of the writers to tease a perfectly good ship and then have them not get together first? They must have been just doing those teases to get views from Blanebin shippers those scoundrels. To Person B, since Corbin started dating someone when he obviously has some chemistry with Blane (even though the series is far from over) means that Blanebin can never get together now and Corbin x person he's dating is ruining Blanebin by existing. In fact, they think, this is terrible writing for Corbin to be dating someone else because they don't like that relationship and don't see the point. Obviously if the writers were good then Corbin would have started dating Blane instead because this was supposed to be the Blanebin show.

Person C despises Blanebin. Don't get them wrong, they've always enjoyed the character's childhood friendship, but they actually have always thought Blane would have been better off with Victoria. They have a lot of moments too! But they're tired of seeing people ship Blanebin. Corbin just got together with someone else, so obviously that's not gonna work out. Plus Corbin and Blane totally has always given person C bro vibes. In fact, person C thinks, sure Corbin and Blane have a close friendship, but people shouldn't be shipping them. Person C likes Blanetoria and Blanetoria can't be canon if Corbin is in the way of it. So Person C likes to read Blanebin as siblings anyways. Sure they're canonically friends, but obviously their friendship turned into brotherhood. This means that nothing can be in the way of Blanetoria and Corbin can keep dating the person he's already canonically dating. Actually, now Blanebin just straight up makes Person C uncomfortable. Don't the pesky shippers understand that Blanebin are sibling coded because they're childhood best friends and that they're important to each other because they're brothers? It's obvious to anyone with eyes.

Sure, ships are involved here, but is the root of this problem shipping? Character A isn't as knowledgeable of other characters in the plot due to this lens they're using, but at the end of the day they're dedicated to analysis. Their love of the characters is pushing them beyond what they like or dislike to try to understand what might be happening through their lens. Not perfect, but they are slowly broadening their horizons. But Person B and C's problems here are their restrictiveness. What is or should be canon to them is tantamount to what they personally like or find comfortable. Is person C actually analyzing the this fake show when they decide to "read" Blanebin as basically canonically siblings (and this all of their moments are totally a bro thing) just because they don't like Blanebin and the idea of them getting together over Blanetoria makes them uncomfortable? Is person B actually analyzing this fake show when their "analysis" of Blanebin goes only as far as asserting it's being ship teased and deciding anything short of canonizing Blanebin is a targeted attack or "bad writing" because it's not what they wanted personally to happen?

This is what I'm talking about. This is the mindset. Shipping isn't the problem. The problem is when people marry fanon and canon to the point where they have a vested interest in superimposing their fanon over canon as "a reading" and trying to make "collective decisions" on what is canon (or what canon is trying to say) based on what does or doesn't make them uncomfortable. The problem is people being restrictive and centering their own likes and dislikes in the conversation, so they can only interact with canon "analysis" wise by deciding what is canon or should be canon "as obviously agreed on by everyone". You can't simply claim you like media analysis. To be able to analyze media and bolster your views on any given canon, you must be open to looking at it through multiple povs, to studying characters without trying to pretend things you don't like don't exist or do like do exist. There is a balance that must be kept between trying to keep objectivity and putting on specific focus/bias based upon the lenses you're putting on. You have to be willing to try to figure out what a media is doing or saying, not saying you're trying to figure out what it's saying while in actuality trying to define the narrative around what people believe it's saying in ways that suit you.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[epickiya722]

Jumping off my other post, I will admit that the whole "Izuku forgot about the river" is something that seemingly came out of nowhere for me.

I never understood it.

I get that we haven't seen him talking about it, but how is it acknowledged that Izuku is an "unreliable narrator" and he doesn't talk about all of his feelings... but then when he doesn't mention the time at the river, he has forgotten about it?

He doesn't mention some things, but that doesn't translate to he forgotten anything.

It's like not mentioning your favorite color all the time and people assume you don't have one or you don't like that color anymore.

In fact, episode 7/chapter 9 alone proves Izuku doesn't forget anything, especially from their past. That episode has him narrate their childhood except for when we get to the river scene, but that was because to show Katsuki's POV on that day and why he started to resent Izuku.

It's not that Izuku forgot that day. It's just he saw it differently from how Katsuki did.

While Izuku saw he was helping out a friend, Katsuki saw it as someone thinking he was weak.

I don't know, I just never got the thing about forgetting the river when Izuku clearly is the last person to forget anything. Especially, when it comes to Katsuki.

It's just emphasized a lot with Katsuki because it was the day he begun really resenting Izuku and soon later regrets it.

It's definitely just a fanon thing. And just me, but some of the things the fandom does agree on when it comes to Izuku, I don't get.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

I gotta say, a personal pet peeve of mine is when people get really into Scourge (making aus and fanart and fics and posts and whatnot) and go "OMG Scourge needs someone to be like his Tails" and then they either make a whole new oc or assume Fiona takes that spot

Miles Erasure

[bardan-jusik]

can i say something kind of controversial

i... don't like kamino/clone/cadet babysitting headcanons

i don't like headcanons that present alpha-17 as the big brother not only of most clones in general, but also of the other alphas, who are all roughly as big of assholes and hardasses as he is

i don't like it when fan content forgets or ignores or doesn't adequately represent the clones as being in a military, having military culture, and everything that means

i don't like it when their entire situation is softened and the edges are knocked off

and yes i realize this is the animated shows fault and not entirely just the fanbase liking fluff because canon itself seriously sometimes treats the gar like fucking high school

[teamfortresstwo]

RA shippers are so annoying about Vox man . Like not only would he not fucking say that, neither of the characters you’re shipping would say that either . And I wouldn’t be bothered by it if they PROPERLY TAGGED THEIR SHIT but some people are just fucking incapable of it I guess .

Also! I get the want for your faves to be ooc sometimes but like . You can’t MAKE them ooc and then claim this version to be better than a canon ship because ohhhhh they love eachother so much more when in canon it is literally less intimate than the ship you’re bashing!!!!!! It literally has no basis so you have no leg to stand on!!!!! Stop claiming you’re somehow better for shipping it oh my god!!!!

[automatic-midnight]

My biased, really unpopular take is that I think rit/su/maya is an objectively boring ship.

[sydneyofalltrades]

unpopular rtc ship opinion:

nischa is divine and clearly one of the best rtc ships, no questions asked. but denouncing canon mischalia to make nischa possible (aus involving no talia do not count, they're aus), such as having talia be a plain side character even in a canon based fanfic, is slightly problematic

[monstrsball]

goes on the haikyuu fanon wiki and makes pages for iwa's moms

[axiina]

I think I'm finally worn

Pairing: Aegon Targaryen x wife!reader

Summary: Aegon managed to keep up appearances for a long time, a mask behind which he hid everything he felt... until finally, he could no longer do so.

Themes: angst, comfort

Warnings: Delulu fanon Aegon, toxic relationship, addictions, depression, mental break down

Author's note: In anticipation of the fifth episode I come with a short angst with Aegon. The scene where he cried and Alicent came out destroyed me, so here we are with comforting our broken boy

Aegon felt awful.

He had no idea if it was due to the excess of alcohol he was pouring into himself every day, or perhaps because of how he was slowly spiralling down. In truth, he felt that his whole life was one big failure heading towards a final doom.

He had always shown by his behaviour that he was not afraid of this moment or perhaps even looking forward to it. The reality, however, was different.

He was afraid. He was so damn scared.

Every moment when he wasn't drinking himself till passing out was a nightmare. He can't even remember how much time has passed since the last time he was sober.

It was easier that way. The days passed quickly and without unnecessary thoughts. Between the drinking and the whores during his days, there was no room for reflection.

Today, however, was worse, but Aegon couldn't tell why.

No one particularly bothered him. His mother didn't pop up with another argument about what a failure he was, and his father...his father ignored him as usual.

And yet, this strange feeling had been with him since the morning. Hopelessness and overwhelm. This state was already familiar to him, and yet today, it seemed several times worse.

It stifled him and left him unable to breathe. His eyes would close with tears when he least expected it, and his clenched throat made it impossible to drink.

Until he couldn't hold it in any longer.

He didn't even notice when his wife entered his chamber, immersed in an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness. Aegon was slumped in his seat, weeping without even knowing why. He was completely defenceless like a small child.

He needed something to soothe the tangle of emotions that, like ties, wrapped around his body, restraining it painfully. His skin seemed to burn, to ache. He felt like scratching it until it bled until it finally stopped.

Make it finally stop.

Aegon looked up at woman in his chamber and realized he couldn't do it. He just didn't have the strength. His wife's worried gaze only made him more upset. He hated the feeling that she could see him now, so vulnerable and broken, crying like a baby. Aegon didn't want this.

And yet, on the other hand, his heart was screaming and begging for at least a little comfort.

"I don't...I don't know..." He tried to speak, but his voice broke. He tried again, but it was clear that he was unable to explain.

Aegon took a deep breath, but after a moment it turned into a sob. He cursed inside, but it was too late to fight already. He felt pathetic, ashamed. But at the same time, he couldn't stand to be alone now. Aegon didn't want to be left alone with all these thoughts tormenting him.

"Please," he said finally, not looking at her. "Don't leave."

He was terrified by the mere thought that she could leave now.

As if waiting for this small sign of comfort, Aegon immediately leaned into her embrace when she walked closer to him in silence and pulled him closer to her body. He rested his forehead against her stomach, his arms snaking around her hips as tightly as possible. He clutched at her dress, his fingers digging into the fabric like a drowning man grasping for anything solid to keep him afloat.

The tears were streaming down his face as he wept like a little boy.

All the years of disappointment, all the suppressed anger, all the pain and despair that he had stubbornly hidden behind a mask of a heartless rake.

But at this moment, the only reality that mattered was her. Her warm and gentle caress on his hair, soft kisses on top of his head.

He just needed her to be there with him.

[lover-of-mine]

https://www.tumblr.com/lover-of-mine/780109723593834496/also-im-so-fucking-tired-of-yall-saying-that

Me watching these posts, eating popcorn laughing and going yeah! Whack em again Anna! Whack em again!!

Because this fanon notion of Eddie certain fans keep trying to make like… overriding the actual canon version of Eddie we have absolutely needs to die. And I’m so sick of the fandom pushing it (fanon Eddie) and saying anyone who says otherwise (canon Eddie) (correctly says otherwise mind you because again LITERALLY HAVE CANON EDDIE TO BACK IT UP) is inherently wrong.

Canon Eddie is not a rage induced toxic masculine man who can’t speak, can’t cook, can’t show emotions, can’t show love, or any other hateful thing the fandom has decided on.

Like literally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't want to sit here and say I'm the ultimate Eddie understanter, but even the way Eddie dealt with his mother last episode is proof that he is not the angry drowing in machismo bad with words macho guy. He spent 8 hours making a meal. He got Chris back in a movement of protection. He was extremely articulate about how he was feeling without the anger that Helena quite frankly deserved. He's carrying and empathetic and good with new people and even Taylor fucking Kelly says his cooking is good. Eddie is extremely physically affectionate. We see him hugging everyone. His little muah kisses. "Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone" "the family we choose" "you make sure you take some credit for me, you earned it" "you don't have to be anything for anybody". The first thing he does in 810 is move to hug Chim. He started 5 of the 6 buddie hugs. The only person who cries in that show more than Eddie is Maddie.

Half of you have an Eddie quote as a blog title AND ARE STILL SAYING EDDIE IS BAD WITH WORDS.

Sure, writing Eddie like that in s2 when he was just military single father, sure. BUT THAT'S NOT TRUE ANYMORE. He is literally one of the most emotionally intelligent characters on the show.

AND I AM SO FUCKING TIRED.

"But I want Buddie to be the cliche grumpy/sunshine ship of my fantasies" boohoo they're NOT MOVE ON. Eddie is not the closed-off guy that only smiles when Buck is around, and quite frankly, Buck isn't the friendly sunshine friend of everyone guy either, just look at how he treats Ravi. Buck is a guard dog terrified of new people. He canonically only has the 118. His sister has to tell him to make friends and he fails at that.

Buck is also the one who is canonically bad with words. He is rambly, he's often not clear about what he means, especially if he is feeling particularly strong emotions. Buck likes to yap, that does not mean he's good with words. Buck is the action person between the two of them.

People keep erasing canon to shove them into these boxes to make them the cliche ship and IM SO FUCKING TIRED. THEY ARE SO INTERESTING IN CANON YOU DONT NEED TO KEEP DOING ALL THIS WORK TO MAKE THEIR RELATIONSHIP AND PERSONALITIES INTO SOMETHING THE SHOW IS ALREADY DOING IT FOR YOU WATCH THE SHOW WITH YOUR EYES OPEN IM BEGGING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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hellooo haiii :]

i saw a while ago that you said that you were fiddleford hater among lovers… do you mind speaking more on that? (sorry i really liek hearing ur views on stuff)

uhh yeah you know what i'll talk a lil about it . why not . i can share some analysis as a treat . will tuck my thoughts gently behind a readmore, so sweet and softlys

i think fiddleford is a fine character its just irritating when narratively he's treated as this very tragic figure when he's an adult man capable of making his own choices . this is a flaw with the books, to be clear - i do not think the actions of fiddleford align with the explicit narrative he has as a nice guy who had a terrible thing happen to him, which stanford must feel soul-crushing guilt over .

this is what bothers me about him: that he is intended to be read as just an all around good dude with tragic circumstances, rather than a messy guy who made shit-ass terrible decisions every step of the way

not even talking about fandom mischaracterization. that's a given in any collaborative fan space and i don't really hold it against people for doing that . fandom is fun, play with your dolls, do whatever - all that mostly means is im not gonna vibe w/ a lot of fanart, it's not going to impact my opinion of the character . i do think it's funny how the collective fanonization of him is simultaneously the wettest meow-meow, but also a total badass when . he's so fundamentally conflict adverse he destroys his own life and body over it .

my man fucks raccoons . i guess that's badass in it's own way . i guess

the thing that is compelling about fidds to me is he is a bit of a worm, and that worminess winds up destroying him from the inside out . he really embodies the entire concept of 'inaction is action', in a way that's deeply frustrating in both fun and not so fun ways

some of the fun things we know about fiddleford:

leveled the downtown area of palo alto

built a robot to try and kill his wife when she tried to divorce him

built robots to kill kids because his son wasnt paying attention to them

brain blasts people to get free labor out of them

started a cult to brain blast people

so horny for Cthulhu Columbo that he did not get his son a christmas present . not a single Tonking Truck . i know your brain is half melted at this point but cmon man

i don't really think the whole leaving his wife in the 70's is all that cute either . it's a one off joke, and there's something interesting about the fact that it's a one off joke . like what kind of financial freedom do people think a single mother is gonna have in this time period? why is that something that goes unchallenged?

and the fact he leaves them for a year is just like . that's also fucked man . i can personally attest to how fucked it is to have your dad just piss off for a year to do contractor work . what a wild subplot to be treated with such little narrative importance to his character . like . the fact that it holds so little importance to fidds is a narrative all on its own

it's just weird how the story treats him, man . he's not that endearing of a dude, which is what i like about him . i like that he makes bad decisions . i like that he doesn't respect when people say "no" . characters should make bad decisions and be bad people . i just really hate this presentation of his own actions being the fault of anyone other than fiddleford

oh also the research paper stint was insane . wild to me that that was presented in the story as like a cool or kind thing to do to someone . like that's a very reasonable boundary for stanford to be upset about being crossed, and its wild how that's presented as him being a jackass . there are MANY things that make ford a piece of shit . being upset about a guy doing something like that behind your back is not one of them

tho that's a whole other conversation about how ford as a character is defined by never having his boundaries respected, and this never being challenged, and in fact he should just be okay with it when it happens by the "right" sorts of people . once an object, always an object . love him