#tragic hockey yaoi

[r0bzombixx]

she got away.

[mecachrome]

probably very out of context, but how do you get into the nhl fandom? before i got interested in f1 i was looking for what sport to watch (other than football) and i wanted to go there because a few years ago it became a popular topic in m/m romance books (which i read a lot at the time, now i mostly read fics xd) and i found… nothing, i mean, on twt there didn't seem to be a community, i didn't see people interacting about the players, and there weren't high numbers in the posts either, i found a bit of the same thing here on tumblr and other apps, probably it's more popular on tiktok which is what is used the most? the thing is, in the end i couldn't get interested because i didn't understand anything and i ended up watching formula 1 thanks to the noise made by the stans of other fandoms that migrated there lmao

LOL anon a lot of the things you mention here that you considered to be barriers of entry are honestly a great overview of why user-restriction is more commonly practiced in the hockey archives...!

anyway i actually did some sports fandom analysis last year and i really think a large part of it is >nhl fandom is much more accessible to people in na and >football fandom is a lot more accessible to people in europe... for me personally, i've spent Most of my life in places with local hockey teams + part of my family is from a classic market so getting into hockey as a sport was like a pretty natural thing, and i loooveee going to hockey games and actually watching the sport—plus it's way cheaper, if you're in a shitty market with a shitty team you can go to one game and see the players all up close during warmies for like $20 vs. $1283749492347 to go to an f1 race. that being said though, there are definitely people from all over the world who are into the nhl and i do think it's really easy to get into! i've actually seen a lot of f1 fans migrate to hockey recently and i'd argue that it's a lot more public/mimics f1 fandom culture on twitter now (for better or worse haha) if you ever want to get back into it... i'd also say that there's lots of fic to read as well, but admittedly if you were only trying to consume hockey during the height of its like booktok surge, it probably wasn't the same landscape i was working with when i first started reading hockey fic 11 years ago. the thing is that BACK_IN_THE_DAY, hockey WAS the top-producing sports fandom on ao3, so it was super easy to invest in current narratives without feeling like you were part of some tiny grassroots community (ok exaggerated on my part but i'll get to this in a bit lol)... honestly if you just sort by kudos on ao3 while logged in there's plenty of old classics that are fun to read even if you don't understand everything! see an old graph i made below:

anyway 1) i truly think hockey is the best sport ever like as an actual sport in terms of Sportish Entertainment (forgetting the rpf for a second) and you can learn it pretty easily just by watching with a good commentator! hockey isn't like f1 where you watch a race with everyone on the grid, so that's why as an overall fandom it's more quiet and it helps to pick One (1) team you're interested in getting into and just watching their games and not worrying about the rest of the league for the moment.

for ex i'm primarily a dallas stars fan, and my main hockey blog 39oa is entirely meant for them, and they're the only team i watch All 82 Games For. i also have montembeault for other teams i like (mainly habs/nux) but i don't really update it that much anymore...

2) hockey rpf has definitely had phases with strong formative ships and the problem with it currently is that there's kind of a dearth of like active, marketable material to work with... at its peak and during the early ao3 days there was sidgeno, ship i won't name, bennguin (in some ways we still have 2 of these but it's not like at the same level of course), nickovi, i mean i could go on... tragic kings yaoi... and then the 2015 draft class revitalized things majorly (this is when i got into hockey rpf properly lol i peddled mcstromarner when they were still in juniors so hard... not many people know this) and a lot of rpf for the following years depended on them, and then of course we had the Summer of tknp which is what REALLY got things going again..... but that ship is functionally over and there's also a really prominent rivalry ship that has much less pull now that they're not actually on rival teams lol and then another ship that had rookie and_they_were_roommates narratives got separated so now it's like WHAT IS THERE TO SHIP!!! and i mean hockey is SO spread out truly, i actually have another old stats post about degrees of separation in hockey shipping but anyway... nowadays there is actually a Hawt New yaoi ship that kind of models jdtz (rookie rommates) that many people are into! so that's a fun place to start if you want to try somewhere trendy. i'm 100% sure if you sought out sharks fans on twitter in like a fandomy environment you could do so pretty easily...

3) i think part of it as you said is that hockey is a much smaller community, especially when you're interacting in the subfandoms for each individual team. some teams have HUGE markets on an IRL fandom level (canadian teams like toronto and montreal for example), but my team's being from dallas where the primary sport is american football means it has an absolutely tragic amount of news coverage and no one really cares about them much. the #southernbias in hockey is so strong 💔 and then on top of that even teams with big irl fandoms might not really have the equivalent attention on tumblr because it also depends on whether they have compelling yaoi to keep the fujos interested......... but to ME that's also beautiful because even if your team's fandom is just 10 people liveblogging and making gifsets with 40 notes, it's a special sense of community and the wank/drama levels are like insanely lower, and there's more of a sense of We're in this watching sports together than like We're all going to be really mad at everything and argue about team orders all day even though the race ended 5 months ago 🥲 yes the fic outputs will be much slower than you might like but that's what i mean by the grassroots feel haha like there's really a sense of support for the fandom creativity!!! f1 can kind of feel lonely sometimes because there's so many people but they're all silent lurkers/likers :'(

also playoffs hockey will change your life. so you gotta stick around until april!!!!!!!! that's all i've got...

[puckpocketed]

*Kicks in the doors* You put Jeff Carter and Mike Richards on my dash and let me tell you...thanks! I love them and their love and their tragedy. They played against each other in the OHL, were drafted by the Flyers, played in the AHL during the lockout and won the Calder Cup together. Then they would go on to play and party in Philly, becoming beloved and reviled by the fanbases in turn. They signed massive 12 year deals (which the new CBA prevents anyone from signing more then 8 years) together so that they could play together forever...and then they were both traded. Richards to the Kings and Carter to the Blue Jackets.

Carter's play dropped off so badly with the Blue Jackets that the basically got given to the Kings. And when he arrived, his play and Richards' play picked up. They were inseparable. Winning the Cup together, twice, and handing the Cup off to each other.

And then, the tragedy. The ending. Richards substance abuse issues, buyout (that he's still being paid, I believe), and eventual retirement. Carter becoming a Penguin and retiring as one.

The journalists giving us lines like "Mike likes Jeff but Jeff loves Mike." etc. Tragic yaoi central.

ALSO the Mike Richards trade is what sent Wayne Simmonds to Philly where he would be beloved and is still beloved and now works for the org. And the new front office is working hard to repair relationships with former players to the point that Mike Richards played in the alumni game last season. It was a very big deal.

Anyway, this is like a reader's digest version of the history. You Can't Do That podcast (a very funny Caps podcast that I would recommend) has an episode where they go into the Ballad of Mike Richards and Jeff Carter more in depth. And I am sure other people have other recs. But yeah, here we are. It's 2024 and these old men still have a hold on me.

im learning so many new things. such as their names .and also they played for the FLYE RS... okay... <3 CRAZY finding all this out btw, from the standpoint of someone whos kinda just been following the hockey. a friend described it to me as digging down and finding a whole abandoned civilisation <- i did NOT realise how popular LA was on here in the 2010s... lmao.... like i had an inkling. they do have 2 cups. and people like good teams. right (<- shark s enjoyer) but yeah the whole Epic Yaoi Tragedy was not on my radar at ALL . Im so glad those two old men have a hold on you... yayyy <3

hope im not coming off as like... gawking at zoo animals. i rly do feel a level of kinship with rpf writers ( to me we are siblings) and i'm just very interested in it all on a meta level. plus, the narrative IS super fun without the shipping twist lol i love melodrama and i LOVE tragedy!!! scuttling over to the podcast and good heavens that sure is. 194 episodes. . you wouldn't happen to know which episode it is where they talk about these guys?? also if you have any more recommendations for caps pods pls share!

deep cuts about van puckpocketed: i used to be a dm! i love listening to lore. when players used to bring me lore about their characters i horked that shit up with two spoons <3 what im saying is thank u very much for the morning papers/lore dump!!

[moonshynecybin]

💗 for the ask game!!

a fic you’ve reread again and again and why!

okay this is long and rambling and contains ships i dont even CARE about anymore but here are the fics i KEEP rereading over and over again. no motogp on here yet cuz frankly i havent had the space to reread them without the accompanying braininsane etc, but these are the ones i pull up when im gonna be on a plane for ten hours or whatever:

and these, from atoms by kay_cricketed, charles/erik, xmen

NO ONE. has ever written a post xmfc fic that has adequetely addressed that character dynamic imo. EXCEPT THIS GUYYYYYY... tragically unfinished but worth it for the way it understands charles and erik's issues, opinions, affection, trauma, and politics (mostly).

The Fire Sermon on Mount Cyllene by kangeiko, prost/senna, f1

insane in the membrane vintage f1 yaoi spontaneous genderbend fic. it WHIPS

God Loves A Medic by stewardess, roe/speirs, band of brothers

listen this ship is insane but this fic is GOOD... eugene roe has healing hands....

the yungmeng accords by cafecliche, wei wuxian and jiang cheng, the untamed

the BEST thing about the untamed is the horrifically broken sibling relationship at its center. this fic understands that tragedy and ALSO understands that it can never quiteeee be remedied, but it matters that they LOVE each other... so good so yummy

in the shadow of your wings by Enochian Things (Salr323), destiel, spn

literally just so funny that cas gets an italian boyfriend and it kinda breaks dean's brain. love to reread for the schadenfreud

the long hangover by coffiocake, superbat, dc comics

another ship idrc about BUT. this fic is so good and i'd bet everyone has surface level familiarity with these characters enough to have a good time. FUN use for dramatic irony and presumed death... yayyyy

trust falls and probability excercises, vasquez/faraday, the magnificent seven

fr i dont even care about this MOVIE like at ALL but again this fic is fuckinggggggood. explores luck as a superpower AND another presumed death thing. arguably my fav trope sowwy

a few degrees warmer by bigboobedcanuck, winniz, band of brothers

WINNIX NATION. ARE YOU OUT THERE.....

in our line of work by enjambament, arthur/eames, inception

watched this movie once and went okay. that happened. anyways this is if the gay guys involved lived out ten yrs of married life and then. WOKE UP. and it was a DREAM. agony etc

ordinary numbers by BootsnBlossoms, Kryptaria, 00q, james bond

DONT care about this ship again. um. GREAT fic i reread her all the time <3

the salt king by ladyblahblah, sidgeno, hockey rpf

hockey rpf is just GOOD FICTION !!!!! and this is probably my MOST reread fic maybe ever except the band of brothers ones... geno is a selkie sid is a fisherman and they DIE and get re-incarnated into HOCKEY PLAYERS.... awesome

[bottomskywalker-moved-blog]

I think the problem lies in the fact that some people misinterpreted your statement. I'm assuming you meant 'connecting' as as in: YOI fans keep posting sad headcanons / making it about the characters and their struggle when the focus should be on real people and the real life struggle (yes, totally support this). But your phrasing lends the read of 'connecting' as in: YOI as the reason for Russian hate crimes / people doing hate crimes because of YOI. That's why some people are upset, I think

hey, thanks for the message! hi just woke up so i’m not too coherent, but i’m gonna try to answer this as well as i can aldkskdksk

i feel like anyone accusing me of saying that an anime directly caused gay genocide in chechnya is really reaching though??? like literally no tv show is really that important. the government in chechnya didn’t see “boy love” anime (i think that’s the right term???? bc thankfully it’s not full on yaoi) made by straight women and say “yeah, this is too much, time to kill all the ******s now”. i know every fandom that fetishizes mlm and treats us like a petting zoo thinks that it’s so important that it’s causing real-life events on a major scale (“johnlock made gay marriage happen!!!!”), but if anyone is sincerely out there thinking that i’m blaming an ice skating anime for men like me being rounded up, tortured, and murdered, then that’s uh…..that’s something that they need to really take a look at.

at the end of the day, people are upset because i told them that they can’t make every tragic thing that happens to gbt men about their otp and trivialize what’s happening, and they didn’t like it. because at the end of the day, non-mlm shipping slash will always find a way to make tragedies happening to real human beings about~angst hurt/comfort~ for their ships (like the aph 9/11 shit they pull every year and the time a fan of that hockey comic asked if it was appropriate to do a “pulse shooting au”).

when i said not to “connect” these murders to the show, i said what i meant. don’t align them in any way. don’t talk about the show while you talk about the murders. don’t reference the show, don’t make sad headcanons in the show about the characters going to torture camps, don’t use the show as a platform for protest.

if someone only cares about the oppressioni, murder, and torture of any lgbt group because they can connect it back to their ~otp~ then their priorities are out of whack and i won’t apologize for saying that. real gbt men being slaughtered is more important than a fictional ship. real gbt men in GENERAL are more important than a fictional ship. real people are more important than pretend people and that shouldn’t have to be a radical statement.

when real-life tragedy strikes, i know it’s normal to look to align it with something you know so you can try to understand it better. that’s just a way of internalizing the information and understanding it, and empathizing with it. but it’s when people make fictional characters look like the real victims in something happening to real people that it becomes less information processing and more distasteful. even when good things happen, people make it about fiction. a marriage equality bill got passed somewhere??? who cares about the real people and families that can finally come together after being denied that basic human right for so long!!! your otp can finally get hitched!!!

basically i’m mad that nobody gives a shit about what happens to lgbt people unless they can somehow connect it to their fictional ship.

also i called the show “dumb” and people in the tags are really losing their shit over that like “i WOULD agree with you that the collection, torture and murder of gbt men is bad, but you said yoi was a "dumb ice skating anime” so uh….bad post op". like if people are more upset that i called a show dumb because i was mad than the fact that fans of that show are trivializing what could very quickly become a genocide/attempted genocide ice, then those priorities are out of whack lol

it’s also important to note that i made that post as a personal vent post sorta off handedly and then it got 4k notes literally overnight and i don’t know how so it’s not like i was intending to preach to the masses or anything

i hope none of this sounded rude akdkskdmdm and i’m sorry if it did. i literally Just woke up.