#why is star wars media so freaking good?

[ibrokeeverything]

I love so much that echo isn't forgotten about. You feel his absence from the very beginning and it's a focus throughout the entire episode. I've seen many a lesser show sweep this kind of thing under the rug and pretend it never happened, and it makes me so happy to see people hurting and feeling that absence. A part of their family is gone and they need time to process. Idk it just means a lot to me 🤧

[a-door-to-somewhere]

Watching skeleton crew, here's a bunch of my unorganized thoughts and theories for ep 1-5, spoilers below!!!

- first off i genuinely like this show. It knows what it is and owns its allusions to Goonies and other pirate media. It really nails the campy/cheesy feel in earnest- it doesn't feel cheap. I'm also glad that it's rather small stake-wise (in the scheme of things). I think it was a good decision in general to have a nice self contained story here

- I'm really glad Neel looks so good. Seriously, we haven't had an alien quite this non-humanoid have such a prominent speaking role in a WHILE. like, ahsoka, jecki, and the various wookies were all make up or costume based. Neel is not acted using a human face and yet his expressions feel so readable and he's not stiff or uncanny. It's like what jar jar could have been

- I love jack/jod/silvo/dash/whatever he's so cringe fail. I genuinely don't know if he is tied to actual jedis or if he's force sensitive or if he's faking it somehow. The framing around his use of the force is so clever it's making me second guess things: initially when he levitates the key over, the force theme plays and he's even wearing a little cloak. However he's only shown using levitation to summon thing, and not mind tricks, force pushes, or even a general ability to have "bad feelings" about things. Also, that one line in ep5 about forgetting his parents because they're 'attachments?' If he isn't associated with jedi, that's some really funny lampshading, star wars

- I love kb. No further notes here

- yes I see it. You're telling me jod tied that pirate robot down. What freaks. Gay af

- it occurs to me that if at attin was completely sheltered from the war and effectively still in old republic era (they didn't know about alderaan 💀) then they might not even be aware of the Purge. They might not even be aware of the propaganda spread by the empire of the jedi becoming traitors. Clearly jedi are still rare, but they might not understand how rare jedi actually are and why. Poor Wim nobody tell him about order 66

- I love how the parents are dealing with andor-esque dystopian surveillance nightmares but because it's a b plot in a kids show it's mostly used for comedy. I actually love the Utopian with a secret trope, at attin totally reminds me of the City of Embers with the Great Work and the test and all that

- I'll put more as I think of it :D

[cross-my-heartt]

okay so I slept on it... and as much as I hate to say it I think I'm disappointed with episode five

really disappointed

putting my thoughts under a cut, they're mostly critical but there's some praise in there too

I'm not gonna lie some parts of this episode were fantastic. I legitimately started crying when Crosshair picked up Mayday's helmet and started lining them all up. but as much as I wanted to feel the same way about the other emotional moments in this episode (and they were a lot) I just didn't and it's weird because they feel right from a storytelling perspective but execution wise?... yeah, I have some thoughts

for starters I'm getting really frustrated with Corbett and co's aversion to showing us characters reacting to major events. I fully expected this episode to pick up where we left off but instead we went straight to the timeskip, foregoing all the initial stages of Crosshair's reintegration into the team (similarly people have pointed out how disappointing it is that we didn't see Crosshair react to the news of Tech's death. or Echo reacting to the news of Fives’ death. can we see the pattern here?)

we're supposed to feel like this tension in the team has been going on for a while but instead we're just told that it has. yes, it makes sense for this to be the case but when you think that the whole thing is resolved in one single episode, you start to realize just how damn rushed it is

so much of this episode relied on clunky exposition to fill us in on what's happening instead of just taking the time to show us. imagine if instead of one episode we had three episodes to develop this story line. one on Pabu, one on Barton and one final one for the mission where Crosshiar and Hunter's tension comes to a head. just imagine.

we have so much room for side quests where these characters' conflicts can broil and stew and develop in the background and we can get a real sense of time passing and a sense of how this affects them. we got a whole episode dedicated to showing us what Omega's imprisonment was like on Tantiss, imagine if they'd put the same effort into setting up Crosshair's return the same way

instead this is really starting to feel like we're trying to get Crosshair's arc out of the way so we can move on to the next one (which I presume will be about Tech) and if we do get episodes where this could have been developed as a background subplot I will chew my socks off

also if I see another giant worm creature living underground in a star wars media, I will throw myself off a cliff

NO MORE FREAKING CREATURES. we're sick and tired of them. why, why do we have to waste precious screen time on a redundant action scene? it feels so old at this point. not to mention how obviously shoehorned it is because a) it messes with Outpost's plot and b) Outpost never mentioned this being the purpose of the sensors meaning this is obviously something the writers retconned into existence to hastily cobble the plot together

a very predictable one too, I swear to god I expected it to be a worm the moment they showed the ground shake, I swear

yes, it was supposed to show us the batch working together as a yay team moment but I personally feel it was pretty lackluster (none of them actually put their special skills to good use, I'm baffled by how useless Hunter's sense were here). imagine if instead of this we got an episode that was actually interested in exploring the conflict between these two

have them walk off to quarrel after Hunter sees Crosshair acting strange with the helmets (the one piece of setup I would praise) then accidentally fall through a weak point in the ice, plunging them underground. and instead of an action scene we get a long episode of them trying to get out of the maze, walking through the tunnels and struggling to cooperate in between bouts of bickering. have Crosshair internally freaking out because this is all so similar to him and Mayday crawling through the tunnels. maybe have one of them step on an old mine, echoing that same moment in Outpost

have Hunter ask Crosshair why he knows about these mines and who taught him to disarm them. have Crosshair completely reluctant to tell him

seriously there is SO much wasted potential here...

which leads me to the next point which is dialogue. the worst side effect of rushing plot is that most of your dialogue ends up being expository and it really showed. characters saying exactly how they feel, over explaining and pointing out things that could have been shown. it all feels even more egregious when you realize that Crosshair is the one saddled with most of the exposition making him not only weirdly talkative this episode but also nudging him into the out of character territory

because Crosshair has always been taciturn and roundabout in the way he expresses himself and I feel like this was sorely lacking this time. it's a shame because that's one of the main things that made him so complex and interesting to watch

call me crazy but we didn't need Crosshair and Hunter acknowledging their mistakes. a meaningful look or a silent moment shared between them would have sufficed. we didn't need Crossahir saying what he's done, we know what he's done, and knowing Crosshair that shouldn't have come out so earnestly either

I feel like the show has proved that it's really good at conveying these nuances in a subtle way but somehow it forgot all about it in its urge to hurry the plot along

I don't know if I'm wrong or right about this but I really hope I'm not. I'm not saying the writers are neglecting Crosshair as a character, there were moments where I could really feel how much love they have for him. but the telling of that story really fell flat

all in all this episode felt like 'finish crosshair's story arc: speedrun edition'. the right story beats are there - the hug, the confrontation, honoring Mayday, focusing on the tremor - but they're so rushed and the dialogue is so expository and clunky that they left me feeling hollow

(also are we really going to pretend it's okay for AZ to be there?? your sole chip removing droid and it's used as target practice by the man with a hand tremor and a 50% accuracy rate?? hello??? anyway, just a nitpick lol)

all in all there is a lot to love and in a sense we got everything we wanted but I do wish it had been done differently

[kitkatopinions]

If you don't like the choices a writer/content creator makes for a character, you're not obligated to hate the character. And although you can't argue that it isn't 'canon,' you don't have to only see the character through the lens of the bad thing you don't like. If you think the writer/content creator didn't make a character change or character arc convincing, you don't have to pretend that it was believable, and base your perception of the character off of something you thought was badly done or hard to believe.

I'm gonna give an example from the Office. The character of Andy Bernard started out as a meant-to-be douchey, meant-to-be annoying character, and then went to anger management and when he came back started being portrayed as more likeable, though still very flawed. This continued on for seasons, but then in the last season (though arguably starting with the season eight episode 'Welcome Party') Andy started being written as a bad boss early Michael Scott style who his coworkers didn't like. I did not like that direction, thought it was unnecessary despite some funny moments and good plot points coming from it, it sometimes wasn't done very well, and I felt like it was a mistake. I'm not obligated to hate Andy because of the choices the writers made, and I can say 'this felt out of character and it was a bad choice that I think shouldn't have happened,' and other people getting mad at me for not seeing Andy exclusively through the lens of who he was in season nine would be ridiculous. If I made some kind of statement like 'Andy was a pretty good boss at the start of season eight' and someone was like "yeah well he was horrible in the ninth season so he was clearly just pretending to be a good boss" it'd be ridiculous. And if I said 'I just skip over a lot of season nine Andy so I can enjoy his character more,' and someone responded with 'I can't believe you like a character who did such bad things, clearly you're an idiot,' it'd be ridiculous.

Why do people have this idea that if the writers decide something for a character (no matter how late in the game) you have to base whether you like or dislike a character on that alone? If you think something is badly written, if you think that something is a bad choice, if you like a character that's a villain and want to write them as a hero instead, you should be freaking allowed to just clip clip cut out the things you don't like.

I like the character of James Ironwood prior to shooting Oscar, I don't have to say 'well the writers decided he was a completely evil irredeemable villain and therefore it wouldn't be moral of me to like him and now when I watch the Fall of Beacon in volume three I'm morally obligated to seethe about what a bad person he is, better never write fanfics where he's a good guy ever again!' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I've written fanfictions where I have certain characters just be better than they were in the universe because that makes me enjoy the universe more. I've written fics where characters who do bad things that the writers treat as acceptable apologize for their actions. I've looked at characters who have never been anything but villains and then written fics where they're just flawed good guys because I wanted to explore that universe and loved the character concepts. I've disliked whole movies in a series and decided 'in my mind the franchise cuts off here.' There's some pieces of media where I have to adjust everyone in order to enjoy writing for them, but I still enjoy the characters. I've loved badly written characters since I was a kid despite thinking the writer choices were off, and put Pixie Hollow Disney fairy books on my Christmas wish-lists even though my dad reminded me Tinkerbell tried to murder somebody because I could just ignore that. The very first thing I ever wrote was a Star Wars fanfiction when I was six and I didn't like that George Lucas made C-3PO a scaredy cat so I made him into a brave hero instead. I'm not going to just base what I like or don't like on whatever thing the writers wanted or intended. Why would I have to do that?

And honestly, I'm not posting this because I have a real problem with people who do throw out characters when the writers want them to, or only portray or see characters how the writers want them to, or anything like that. But for the love of God I would like them to stop getting angry or judgey when other people are just like 'huh, I don't like this change. I reject it for my own headcanons. This isn't how I see the character.' Like... Why the hell does it matter so much to other people that we must only see fictional characters the exact way the writers intended and therefore must hate the characters who the writers make do bad things. Also this always comes with hypocrisy, because the people that try to police who other people are allowed to like always like other flawed characters or even villains lol, and always adjust their favorites to be better or ignore the mistakes of their favorites.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Monarch Anon: Something I wanted to add. The reason I've ask is because I've been seeing this argument since Tears of the Kingdom got released. Fans believe that the game (and the previous other games) give a pro-monarchist/imperialism message. They also think that Zelda bringing back the monarch system is stupid because they blame that system for her not awaking her powers, or that Hyrule survived a century without it so there's no point to bring it back

Another thing: People used the Yiga's existence as a justification as the ultimate proof that Hyrule Monarchy is bad/untrustworthy because they've been around for 10,000 years. (Basically like 'if they royals are good why is the Yiga still around huh?!"). Like I'm sure that the Yiga seen in BotW/TotK are not the same people as their founders 10k years earlier. I'm willing to believe when they first formed, the Yiga were prolly the equivalent of a civil rights group wanting legit respect. Fans need to realize that 10,000 is a long time. Long enough for a group's ideals to get twisted. I headcanon that when the Royals & Sheikah did reconcile, some sane Yiga members probably rejoined Hyrule, while the more bitter members remained and became the clan we see them now

And thats it...Sorry bringing this onto you. I've been wanting to express this for a while but I do not want to post it publicly out of fear of being attacked/blocked and accused of being pro-monarchist.

Sounds like these people would blend in well with the Star Wars fandom in the whole “I Take This Fictional Media Way Too Freaking Seriously and I’m Gonna Make that Everyone’s Problem.” 🙄 There’s a reason I don’t interact with the SW fandom. Let them block you, lovely, then you don’t have to deal with them. 👍🏻

Anyway, yes, 10K years is an insanely long time. Just look at our own history. People really don’t appreciate how much time Nintendo puts between games and eras, Hyrule is older than this planet I think LOL. Either that or their years are super short 😂 I agree with your idea about the Yiga - had a legit reason to be upset initially, but the millennia corrupted it and the initial reason for it is long since resolved. They’re just insane cultists now.

[kindlythevoid]

⭐

At first I was like: "Oh my gosh I don't know what to talk about, I feel like I've talked about everything already oh my goshhh"

INCORRECT

Here is A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Commentary.

Cut to A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Cut Commentary below for a play-by-play of the actual story with commentary. The following, A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Commentary is simply behind-the-scenes of the creation and intent behind A Waltz Is Still A Waltz.

A Waltz Is Still A Waltz (known as WISW from now on) was definitely inspired by one of my favorite romance songs of all time, One Last Dance by Us the Duo. It is such a pretty song and it's based off a true story and it is just so sweet, I would definitely recommend listening to it (I'll put the spotify at the bottom for easy access). So anyway, I have these two Star Wars characters, right? Right. And I'm writing away at the OC-insert, but writing takes so long and these two characters are nowhere near meeting, but I like writing snippets that hopefully end up in fully-fledged chapters.

But I'm listening to this song and I'm listening (and mind you this happened a while ago so I really have no clue) and I try to write snippets as soon as they come to me or else they're gone forever, so I write down this little snippet. The whole thing is only a few hundred words and is supposed to be about them dancing alone on a warm night in their ship, just a cute little moment.

Two Problems with that.

One: Oh my gosh how do you write ppl that are dancing but not even dancing?? I sure as heck don't know which is why out of the (double checks) 736 words I wrote down, a grand total of 153 of them are about them dancing. Two paragraphs. I spend more time on them actually getting the tapes to play this music than I do on them actually, physically dancing. (I checked, it's 154 vs 153. Like!!! What???)

Do I have the power to go back and write more about them dancing? Yes.

Will I? AS SOON AS I FIGURE OUT HOW TO WRITE THESE TWO!!

Two: I haven't really?? Written the characters all that much?? Like Kirsi, definitely, we have some solid chapters down. Miikka?? I think I finally nailed down whether or not he was a ginger (a very defining feature, mind you) like, last month. Miikka has vibes right now. I don't know if that translates over to a fully-fleshed out personality.

Two-and-a-half-but-technically-Three: I don't?? write in Star Wars?? I've always wanted to, but a lot of fanfic writers are so good at navigating the universe and just throwing in (COMPLETELY CANON!!!) nonsense words for ordinary objects?? So I sit there gobsmacked trying to figure out the freaking parts of a spaceship that doesn't exist to write better. This whole thing is really just me trying to write Star Wars. I may have gone overboard.

Okay, here's the thing. I got a little over-excited about the music. If you were to ask me what this story is about, I would say "Oh, these two space travelers, my OCs Kirsi and Miikka, finally get some down time and get to know each other better before they're officially together." You, reading this now, now know this is merely the lie I tell myself to sleep at night. This is, in fact, a list of music and my very earnest attempt at making a fic Sound Like Star Wars. (how well it worked?? ...mmm.... debatable, I'll leave it up to the masses (all 8 ppl who looked at the piece I love y'all and would risk it all for y'all))

But mostly it's just about the different genres of music to be found in Star Wars.

Why?

Because I spent too. many. hours researching Star Wars music (to find waltz!! because surely Star Wars would have a different word for "waltz"!!!!!!) not to put everything I learned in a grand total of (double checks) 242 words out of the previously aforementioned 736.

Q: After hours and hours of searching, would you like to know what I learned?

A: STAR WARS HAS NO SPECIAL NAME FOR A WALTZ.

This, and the fact that the beloved soon-to-be couple only very crappily dance the waltz, is the core reason behind the name for the story: A Waltz (no matter how badly done, no matter what universe it comes from) Is Still A Waltz

But maybe you're here for A Waltz Is Still A Waltz: The Director's Cut Commentary.

(a la ASMR) Let's dive in, shall we?

Paragraph One: This is mainly just setting the scene. You can tell by the way I drop in the spaceship parts that I'm dipping my toes into the greater Star Wars dialogue. I am also setting up the reason that Miikka and Kirsi, our main characters, will be alone this evening despite their being a part of a whole crew. It is unclear what part of their journey this takes place in, but it can be safely assumed that it is still early on, as Miikka and Kirsi are not officially together at this point and Kirsi is still mostly working for the Rebellion under orders.

Paragraph Two: Here, I try to expand the world of Star Wars to include the people in it who are not, in fact, great heroes or the Skywalkers. As the longest paragraph in the piece, it is merely my love of giving the worlds to the ordinary people that live in it, as well as my heavy implication that the Crew of the Judgement Day can (and, perhaps, will) form a band in their free time. This is left up the discretion of the viewer, however, until I otherwise feel like it.

Paragraph Three: Transition. Going for montage, not doing a great job of it. One of these days I'll go back and beef it up a bit, but for right now it is left vague and up to the reader's imagination. My apologies, reader.

Paragraph Four: I went through the whole of Wookiepedia's many, many pages on Star Wars music. I had to write the word jizz in front of jazz because that's what it is. I must do all of this with a straight face. However, I also take the time to establish more of Miikka's character through his diverse music taste. This will help me in the future, although I cannot say how.

Paragraph Five: Here, I begin by continuing my foray into fake engineering by naming random parts of a ship that sound feasible. I do my best to consult Wookiepedia as well as using my best judgement to gauge what would actually get hit in a dogfight in space, but alas, I hate math, so here we are. I continue the idea of a montage for the audience and randomly reference a story to give the montage some weight/gravity (as in realistic, not as in serious). Unfortunately, I have no idea what story Miikka's is referring to because I have not come up with it yet. I eagerly await the day my creative juices flow properly that I might find out what it is.

Paragraph Six: In this paragraph, I try to account for Kirsi's alternate biology, as whether or not she actually has something passing for ears appears to still be up for debate. It has been brought up that they may use some form of echolocation. I don't delve into it here, but I try to be conscious of this fact as I'm writing from her POV as a Togrutan. Also, I love the feeling of heavy bass coming through the speakers in a car, and the way the whole car can shake, so I thought I would try and convey that here for some sense of reality/relatability in a spaceship.

Paragraph Seven: I need to work on Miikka's personality.

Paragraph Eight: Symphonic, in my opinion, is a lovely word. If I remember correctly, I almost used it twice in the same sentence. I know they say that you don't always have to go to a thesaurus, but damn if it isn't my BFF when I write.

Paragraph Nine: I like using parentheses for inner thoughts for some (but not all!) of my characters. I use it for other stories, but I don't believe they are posted. The only one that comes to mind is Dean's POV from Mara's story, but that is a long, long way from being finished. This is also my attempt at some relatable humor. Whether anyone other than me thought it was funny is up for debate, but I thoroughly enjoy it.

Paragraph Ten: Kirsi, I have decided, has a thing for gingers. Whether she knows this yet is up for debate.

Paragraph Eleven: I'm so down for consent questions. Nothing better. Also the juxtaposition of dirty-tired-mechanic Miikka with refined-polished-questions is *chef's kiss*.

Paragraph Twelve: THEY'RE FINALLY DANCING!! I personally love the idea of Miikka acting as a gentleman and recognizing that Kirsi can do whatever the hell she wants. I also love the idea that Kirsi recognizing this fact and choosing to stay with Miikka. (bc she loves him but neither of them know this yet shhh)

Paragraph Thirteen: Kirsi is crushing so hard and she doesn't even know it. But also the thought of dancing for fun when you aren't good at it?? Or even just swaying in place with the music?? Makes me melt every time. I really do need to go back and add more to this, just because I think it's sweet and the paragraphs are looking really thin. :/ Mixed feelings. Short and sweet? Or Sweet but too short??

Paragraph Fourteen: Oooh, not the beginning of "it doesn't feel like other people when it's you" that introverts understand. IDK if Kirsi is actually an introvert but the idea of Miikka becoming one of her inner inner circle is approaching and I watch it crash hit like a comet with great interest!

Paragraph Fifteen: Yeah, I definitely tried to lean into Togrutan biology this time. Leaves you in the middle of the action, but I think it's a nice ending.

~

And, yeah, thank you so much for joining me. I know that was a lot, with me going off on the story (negative) for the first half and then me going off on the story (positive) for the second half. I appreciate everyone who took the time to read through it (and/or the story itself) and go on this venture with me. <3

I won't promise that every Director's Cut will be this lengthy, but I hope it was entertaining at the very least! :)

Kindly,

The Void

P.S. Below are links to the story (again) as well as the song referenced earlier (One Last Dance by Us the Duo)

P.P.S. I almost forgot! While the initial story was most likely created under the aforementioned song, a majority, if not most of, the editing was done under the repeated listening of the Up theme song, which, if that doesn't tell you something about the story, I don't know what will, ha ha!

[anatee]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

@thegreatwicked thank you so much for the tag! ♥

1. How many works do you have on AO3? Seven, I have all of them here as well.

2. What's your total A03 word count? 114,650

3. What fandoms do you write for? Star Wars & Harry Potter (across all media). I guess Moon Knight counts, too, but I only have one so far. Honestly, I prefer writing for Star Wars (or anything else) here (smut), since all my Wattpad is Harry Potter-themed.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

You can read all of these from my masterlist here!

These are all smuts.

Fantasy | Kylo Ren

Bloody Skywalker | Anakin Skywalker

A sweet way to go | Anakin Skywalker

Insufferable | Armitage Hux

The Cockpit | Poe Dameron 

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Yes, but only when I have anything to add. But I absolutely love reading comments.

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I hate angst, I don't like reading nor writing it, but ig Bloody Skywalker has kind of an angsty ending for some because - spoiler - Anakin still turns to the dark side. To me, it's a win, but I saw some people being sad about it 😅 I have a Harry Potter fic about an OC x Death Eater that ends pretty angsty though.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Almost all of my fics have happy endings, like I said, I hate angst. But let's say my Cedric Diggory fanfic in which he does not die and then has 5 children, a cottage and a wife with a tea shop.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not really, but now that I had my first book published - which started as a fic originally - I'm sure I will 🥴

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes, that's why I'm here on Tumblr. I'm a good girl on Wattpad and a smut freak here. All kinds of smut. I kinda want to try writing a threesome since I never wrote it before and that will take some courage 😆

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? No, I'm not a big fan of them, but a Moon Knight crossover in which Marc's next personality is Poe Dameron sounds very tempting.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Yep, multiple times on Wattpad.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? By myself, yeah 😆

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? No, and that would be a nightmare for me. I don't agree with myself, let alone someone else...

14. What's your all-time favourite ship? I usually hate canon x canon ships, because I always hate one of the characters, that's why I write x OC/x readers only.

15. What's the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? Oh, for the love of Khonshu, the list is longer than the Nile.

16. What are your writing strengths? Based on thr compliments I usually get, I'd say it's describing emotions (which I hate doing) and sticking to the canon in fics (and not making OOCs).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I forget about things I know I should apply - like show, don't tell rule - and I hate proofreading.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? Depends. Sometimes it works if the reader isn't supposed to understand either, but you gotta make sure it's correct and not too much.

19. First fandom you wrote for? Monster High, when I was like what, 11, 12?

20. Favourite fic you've ever written? Insufferable for Hux aaaand Pact With The Devil for Tom Riddle.

[forgottenspring]

I keep getting posts all over my dash about ppl complaining about fans needing confirmation on stuff from the creators and getting mad when they hurt their characters or do something the fandom didn't want. And these ppl are getting mad that ppl think the creators are openly attacking them. And I agree, but also,

I dunno, it just rlly reminds me of Homestuck, Teen Wolf, Supernatural, Sherlock, Voltron, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and a lot of other fandoms of old. Where the creators were actively working against the fans' interpretations and ships on purpose while also teasing the ships as canon.

I think the main problem with the modern fandoms, since a lot of these new fans weren't in those fandoms, is that we don't rlly have separation between creator and fans anymore.

Nowadays creator to fan interactions and constant contact make it blatant if a creator knows how the fans feel about a character's character arc or ships. (Steddie and Eddie Munson in general, Good Omens, etc.)

Where before there was an understanding that they're not beholden to you and that they don't know what the fans want and they are just making their own stories that happen to go against what fans want sometimes. And as of recent that's not the case anymore. It's now all about how much can they learn about the fanbase and tweak what they're writing or tease the fans of a ship and usually queerbaiting. (Game of Thrones, Marvel, Star Wars, Anime)

The fandoms I listed at the very top were actively in the fandoms and taking notes as to cause uproar both good and bad, before going back to their original plans or trashing the original plan to get a rise out of the fans.

And with how online culture is now, fandoms aren't small bubble communities where any ship is just that, a ship. It's now whose voice is the loudest so they can get the creator's attention. Suddenly ships aren't just ships, it's a worry that your ship which had a chance of becoming canon now might not be bc the fandom is being loud about the ship you hate. Or everyone is freaking out about a character that they hate and know that character will get more screen time if they don't take on a crusade to quiet the fandom.

Essentially the fans feel they're in a constant battle of trying to be heard by the creators. If you ever wondered why they harass the actors or creators (Septiplier, Welcome Home, My Hero Academia) I genuinely think it's bc they're afraid if they don't someone else will make their NoTP canon or neglect their favorite character's story arc for a fan favorite or even destroy the original intention of the media/story.

And it's a mess, but there's rlly not much we can do other than collecting again in smaller parts of the fandoms and stop treating each fandom and the creators as a monolith and go back to fandoms just being the tiny sectors we choose to lurk in.

[dumpsterfirepropaganda]

So a while back, I decided to make a spreadsheet listing all of the franchises/series/properties/etc. that I have a special attachment to, along with specific elements/aspects that I particularly enjoy in the media I consume, in order to see if there was any one variable all of them had in common.

It ended up looking like this:

I added the year I got interested in each property as well, and it’s been funny to see the progression - you can see how it starts with the movies my parents showed me at the beginning, then the video games my friends introduced me to (or that I fortuitously found out about after skipping vacation bible school one day but the full version of that story is for another time), then my special interests growing out of a mix of those...then that little stretch in 2020-2021 where I started dipping my toes into things out of morbid curiosity and getting genuinely invested in them whoops

 Anyway, I wanted to share this in case anyone else is interested in creating something like this. I think it’d be so fun to see what other people consider to be the most appealing aspects of the things they’re into, as well as how their tastes evolved over time! 

(Zoomed in versions of the spreadsheet under the cut for easy reading, as well as abbreviated explanations of how I got into everything on this list, if you’re interested.)

Jurassic Park - I was obsessed with dinosaurs as a kid. My parents were like, “Hmm, she might like this - we’ll just make her cover her eyes for the scene where the T-rex eats that guy off of the toilet.”

Star Wars - Parents bought me Lego Star Wars for the Wii because THEY liked Star Wars but I had no clue what was going on, walked in on them watching Episode V and they let me stick around

Pokémon - All my closest friends were into it but I wasn’t allowed to play until finally my parents caved and let me get a DS and a copy of Platinum. Easily the franchise I am the most invested in ahaha

Sonic - Went to the phone store with my mom and they had a mobile version of Sonic 2 on one of the demo phones. Went home and got it on virtual console, literally defined how I play video games now

Mega Man - Picked up a copy of Nintendo Power (RIP) because it had Mewtwo on the cover. Featured character was Zero. His design activated all the neurons in my brain so I read everything I could about him and eventually got into the games, and now Mega Man characters own the deed to my house and my firstborn child

FNAF - Friend showed me a video of a playthrough at my parents’ 25th wedding anniversary. Scared the pants off of me. Couldn’t stop watching it.

Alien/Aliens - The Great Movie Ride at Disney, but specifically the waiting room where they play the trailers for the movies (I closed my eyes during the actual Alien section of the ride because it freaked me the heck out). That trailer stuck in my brain and one day I just decided I wanted to watch it. I’ve never mentioned them before but I need y’all to understand that these are my favorite movies of all time and I literally wrote a college essay about why they are so good

Metroid - Saw Samus in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and thought she was super cool. Got an SNES Classic for Christmas and tried out Super Metroid...instantly hooked. One of the most amazing games in the universe you guys

The Thing - Dad was like, “Oh yeah I watched that in theaters when I was 12 it’s great let’s watch it.” I couldn’t look my own dog in the eyes for three days.

Terminator - Wanted to check out more 80′s sci-fi. Plus Michael Biehn. Love Michael Biehn.

Twilight - Me and a close friend (neither of whom had grown up reading these) decided to watch the first one as a joke. Got invested. Ended up watching them all. Now I write Mega Man/Twilight fanfiction. Beware what you do ironically, folks.

Homestuck - Was vaguely aware of it for years but (like most people) had no clue what it was about until the Sarah Z video. Decided to give it a try.

It checks almost every single box on this spreadsheet, so...there’s my defense for that, I guess.

The Locked Tomb - Everybody kept posting weird things about this book series and it sounded too crazy NOT to read

Subnautica - I love the ocean. I love space. I love aliens. I couldn’t get a copy of Pokémon Violet at Wal-Mart and wanted something new to play and it happened to be on the shelf.

[nimata-beroya]

It's Friday night, so I'm still on time. Today's the turn to revisit another one-shot with the boys! Especially Cross and Tech. Featuring a little angst, a little whump, and the promise of deserved payback 😆

I hope you enjoy it!

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom: Star Wars: The Bad Batch (Cartoon), Star Wars - All Media Types

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Words: 1152 words

Relationships: Crosshair & Tech (Star Wars: The Bad Batch)

Characters: Tech (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), Hunter (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), Wrecker (Star Wars: The Bad Batch)

Additional Tags: No Romance, Brotherly Love, Whump, Whumptober 2021, Day 3, prompt: insult, prompt: who did this to you?, Bullying, Minor Injuries, Blood and Injury, Blood, Tech Whump (Star Wars: The Bd Batch), Protective Crosshair (Star Wars: The Bad Batch), Protective brother Crosshair, Star Wars X-tober Extravaganza 2k21, swxt 2k21, The bad batchers as cadets

Series: Part 3 of Star Wars X-tober Extravaganza 2k21, Part 4 of Good Soldiers Follow Orders, Good Brothers Disobey Them

Summary: The life of Crosshair and Tech in Kamino as cadets has never been easy.

TOMORROW IS A GOOD DAY FOR SOMEONE ELSE TO DIE

Tearing his gaze away from the datapad on his hand displaying the stats of his most recent session in the shooting range, Crosshair scowls at Hunter and Wrecker when the latter asks where the last member of their squad is. The novelty of Tech being the last to return to their bunk quarters every night after a day of endless training is nonexistent.

“I don’t know, but he should be here soon.”

Crosshair doesn’t know to whom Hunter tries to convince more, himself or Wrecker. His tone of voice lacks conviction.

“It’s only ten minutes to curfew,” Wrecker says, glancing at the chrono on the wall. “If he’s caught out of bed, he’ll be in trouble.”

Crosshair leaps off his bunk bed on the top and lands smoothly with a thud next to his batchmates. He takes out of his mouth the toothpick he’s been chewing and says, “Wouldn’t be the first time.”

He prides himself in the nonchalance of his words, not letting anyone know that he also worries about Tech. He has noticed that Tech has been pushing himself harder than ever. Those damned longnecks are demanding of him to learn more and faster, to use his superior intelligence to solve impossible problems. Tech hates disappointing them. Failing means to be subjected to medical tests and experiments to figure out why the flaw occurred and how to improve his abilities.

Crosshair’s comment is received as expected. Hunter gives him a peeved glare. Meanwhile, Wrecker bristles and barks, “Yeah, well, I don’t wanna Tech to be punished for it.”

“Low your voice,” Hunter shushes him when several other cadets look their way from the other side of the barracks.

Crosshair shoots angry darts at the regs, promising retribution if any of them dares to comment on either Wrecker’s loud voice or Tech’s absence. His batchmates might try his patience more often than he’d like, but what Crosshair can’t put up with is the constant bullying that they’re objected to by the standard clones because of their genetic enhancements.

Most of the regs fidget under Crosshair’s glare, some of them get uncomfortable enough to climb on their beds and call it a night. Only a couple are bold and stupid to withstand the heat. They whisper between them, sending sneers at him. Crosshair can imagine what they’re saying. The same insults that he and the rest of his squad hear every day in the mess hall and corridors.

The sad batch.

The defect squad.

Freak droidmeat.

Crosshair tosses the toothpick away with an angry flick of his fingers and starts forward, just to be stopped by Hunter, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Where are you going?”

Crosshair shrugs off the restraining hand, giving a stony glance at Hunter. “I’m going to find Tech.”

Keep reading

[bunchacrunchcake]

I will tell you about an entire movie that was unnecessary.

There's a really wonderful movie called The Sorcerer. It was shot in the 70s. It's original budget was $14m but it ballooned to $20m because the director got a bit obsessed with shooting it perfectly. Two major studios had to join together to finish it. It barely made any money. The director blamed it on the fact that Star Wars came out the same weekend. But I can tell you that was not the reason.

The movie is extremely well shot and well written. It's well acted, the props and costumes are good. It's by all measures an excellent movie.

It opens up with a few different criminal stories, a Palestinian blowing up an Israeli building, almost getting caught and running away, and a few similar criminal stories. They all end up in the same town in South America living in exile with fake I.D.s

That's the first 3rd of the movie. The rest of the movie they're basically stuck working at a mine, and they have to transport really volatile explosives across a messed up jungle roadway to blow the mine back open after an accident. If they jiggle the trucks too much, the explosives will blow everyone sky high. They're all down and out so they agree to it. No one else in town will risk their life.

And that's it. It could be like Speed, or Crank, or Aguirre The Wrath of God, but honestly it's a ton of shots of the front tire inching over and then backing up and then inching and backing, back and forth so they can just barely clear a bump without blowing the truck up. They do it on a rickety bridge over a rushing river. There was more but I lost interest.

I love boring stuff. One of my favorite books is called How To Look At Things and it teaches you how to look at an X-Ray, and then a quarter, and then a Bible page, and all the info you can get off of it. It was in the $1 rack because it was just too boring for most people.

This movie was boring and pretty pointless. A-List actors who spend most of their time yelling. Beautiful cinematography where most of it is spent on closeups of a truck. The plot lays out 4 really interesting protagonists, and ending aside, we don't really explore them or their position in life at all. They're just rough guys doing a rough job. While the job is insane, it's not exciting. It's hard to explain. They're so close to death and I just couldn't bring myself to care.

And I was wondering how many people in the 70s would pick this movie over Star Wars which has Ewoks and a trash compactor and the force. I'm not saying Star Wars is high art but it's got a lot of stuff going on.

And okay we're watching a movie about a truck, one that they built from old parts! But I had to read the wiki to learn that because it's not really covered heavily in the movie. The art of driving isn't covered. The landscape and dangers aren't talked about. You have no idea how far they've gone and also no sense of the delirium they're feeling not knowing themselves. It's just a lot of starting and stopping without a ton of context. What do you win at the end? A mining company gets to mine again? The characters aren't much better off? Okay I mean not that interesting but we could make it interesting if we explore it... oh okay no we're not doing that.

By all measures it should be an amazing movie.

But I was like why am I watching this.

As a gay art freak I think a lot of neo-cons and centrist libs are really triggered by art that suggests they might be doing something bad. 100% agree with you. And I think that most media criticism in the 2020s has been regressive idiots whining about how much they're persecuted by equality and free speech.

But also as a gay art freak, there's so much bad art out there. So many 5 season netflix shows that would be better as 3 episodes. I don't want to stop people from making art. No art will ever be perfect.

But, if you've gone to the effort of writing an entire movie about driving trucks in the jungle, how are you going to tell that story in a way that is compelling to someone who has never driven a truck and never been to the jungle? Or vice versa how are you going to write that for someone who's completely obfuckingsessed with driving trucks in the jungle. If at the end of the day I come out of the thing as ignorant as I came in, I basically just paid to watch a screensaver.

P.S. Kudos to the director though, it's an insane movie. I do not have the talent to make it.

P.P.S. most of THIS ESSAY IS UNNECESSARY

maybe a crazy take idk but i dont actually think many scenes in stories are 'unneccesary' i think they just make people uncomfortable and rather than try to understand the significance of that discomfort and why the author mightve deliberately inflicted it, decide that discomfort = bad, therefore that scene + the author are both bad

[darkcrowprincess]

Things I will never do when it comes to fandom:

Watch the star wars sequels(anything besides the prequels and the originals and maybe rouge one and maybe maybe the clone wars but god do they get Anakin and Padme so wrong in those) because they ruined the happy endings for Luke Leia and Han! And all the character growth for them and the people before them.

Never will like Frozen or the sequel movie and shorts. Other than Elsa's songs the movies are bad to me and overrated. Do not get the hype and never will.

Be a f**king stucky fan. I love the characters individually. Love shipping stony and sambucky, and natbucky. BUT I HATE THE SHIP. Mostly because the fans made me hate it. Especially because of the tony stark hate attached to it. And whenever stucky fans get pissed about their ship I take great pleasure in it.

Hate on Batman/ Bruce Wayne. Love him he's one of favorite male superheroes.

Hate on Tony Stark Aka The Iron man. Same reason as for batman he's one of my favorite male superheroes.

Will never ever like mind control powers they just freak me out. If the character is good enough to peak my interest than I can make exceptions. But just no. Mind control powers are creepy as hell and as someone with anxiety and control issues I will never like those type of characters(cough wanda)

Will never get the hate on hating fictional rich characters or fictional characters who become rich/royalty or marry somone rich or into royalty/marry someone who becomes rich. It's fictional! Let me day dream about being rich and it not affecting anyone in real life!

Same thing when it comes to being adopted into a rich or royal family! Let me dream people!

Hating on fictional media if it's not 100% perfectly historically accurate. Why are people so obsessed with historical accuracy in fiction? I get it if this piece of fiction is ment to be used as educational purposes. Or many its a really big ridiculous thing, or they are purposely being rude and hateful. I get that. But if it's not, let people be and have fun! Why do you have to constantly suck the fun out of everything. People miss things. They are not going to be perfect.

Hating on things because they are problematic and not strictly vanilla. God you will miss out on so many intriguing and interesting things in fiction. Things are not black and white, and you need to look at the world with empathy and critical thinking. Looking at things with out this will make your world so dangerous and narrow. Problematic fiction helps you do this.

Turning found families(people who are not all blood relate to each other but see each other as family)into a nuclear families. Mainly so you can shit on people's ships in this found family.

Will never ever like Edward Cullen.

Will never ever like how Stephanie Meyers writes about vampires, wolf packs, soulmates, and just in general romance.

Will never like Mcu Wanda Maximoff.

Will never hate on found family trope.

Will never hate on romance as long as it's written good.

[cyarsk52-20]

these moments are giving heavy deep negro sigh

Here Are the Worst Black Moments of 2024

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Though 2024 came with a handful of highs, it also came with a handful of lows in everything from the political sphere to entertainment and pop culture.

As the year comes to a close, we thought it would be fitting to take a look back on some of the worst moments of 2024 and reflect on the “Ls” Black people took as a collective. Hopefully, by the time 2025 rolls around we can all put these things in the rearview mirror and gain some more “Ws” in the next 12 months.

Blackness in your inbox daily. Subscribe to The Root.

Vice President Kamala Harris Losing the 2024 Presidential Election

Now you already know we had to start off strong with one of the biggest, worst moments of the year. Despite making history with record donations and strong debate performances, it still wasn’t enough for Vice President Kamala Harris to win the presidential election. Her loss sparked sadness, frustration and resolve from Black women in particular who decided they’d no longer play their part in helping save the nation from itself anymore. and when black ppl said that they are done it means they are DONE! So if you wonder why they are not gonna be outraged by the upcoming deportations remember this: those who voted for it could have prevented this.

Mike Tyson Losing the Fight Against Jake Paul

Now sure, maybe we all shouldn’t have really expected a nearly 59-year-old boxing champion to win a fight against somebody nearly 30 years his junior, but seeing Mike Tyson—of all fighters—get tired and worn out and ultimately lose against Jake Paul was a moment of time I, personally, wish we all didn’t have to witness.

James Earl Jones’ Death

After years of false alarms of James Earl Jones’ death on social media, folks all over were shocked when it was announced the “Star Wars” and “Lion King” star had actually transitioned to the other side on Sep. 9.

Frankie Beverly’s Death

As if losing James Earl Jones wasn’t bad enough, less than 24 hours later, Black folks were dealt another blow when we learned that beloved singer Frankie Beverly died. As one of the voices that were paramount to the soundtrack of Black America, Beverly’s death was and still is hard to deal with.

Tito Jackson’s Death

Not even five days after Frankie Beverly’s death, the grief of Black America was deepened even more when the news that Jackson 5 member Tito Jackson had passed away on Sep. 15. Having lost three legends back to back to back, the month of September definitely got off to a rough start. Seriously to hades with this freaking month of September, you horrid little bastard (I’m kidding, but seriously come back when you’re not as bad in 2025, you hear me)

Quincy Jones’ Death

It was already a hard year when it came to losing music legends but the cake was arguably taken when the news of Quincy Jones’ death on Nov. 3 was made public. With his talents and contributions spanning across TV and film in addition to music—Jones’ legacy will undoubtedly live beyond him for years to come.

“The American Society of Magical Negros” Release

The swiftness with which Black Twitter dragged the trailer for “The American Society of Magical Negroes” back in Dec. 2023, should’ve been a good indicator of how badly the movie would be received when it hit theaters the following March. But it’s clear that it wasn’t as the film received double lashings shortly after its release thanks to the lack of actual magical negroes using their powers for other Black folks and the non-Black love interest to name a few things. If you’re going to make a powerful movie regarding black ppl with magic you better make it at least slightly enjoyable or just watch the first(and unfortunately only) season of HBO lovecraft country

Raygun Winning Breakdancing at the Olympics

The news that breakdancing was an official category in the 2024 Olympics put a lot of smiles on a lot of Black folks’ faces. But, those smiles were quickly wiped away when Australian dancer with the rhythm of a wet macaroni noodle and puzzling choreography got all the attention. 

I’m mad this moment will forever be etched in history because it was truly horrific. Like it’s over fifty years since breakdancing and this is what it led to? The breakdancers who went to the big dance show in the sky are turning into their graves

“DEI Mayor” & the Francis Scott Key Bridge Collapse

As if seeing the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore shockingly collapse back in March wasn’t one thing, seeing the racist response to Mayor Brandon Scott and him being called the “DEI Mayor” in the aftermath made an already bad situation that much worse. Thankfully he handled it with tact and wit but that still didn’t take away from the overt racism lobbed against him.

John Amos’ Messy Death & Funerals

Prior to John Amos’ death on Aug. 21, we’d all gotten privy to the drama that was brewing between his two children: daughter Shannon and son KC. But things took an even weirder turn for the worse when the world found out about the elder Amos’ death and that he was cremated nearly two months after he’d already passed away. What followed was even more online mess between his kids and even two separate funerals. 

Ray J’s Fight With Diddy’s Kids and the Unlikely Mediator

Though Sean “Diddy” Combs has enough problems to deal with on his own thanks to his federal indictment, his kids Justin, Quincy and Christian apparently took up the mantle to defend him when they engaged in a “heated face off” with Ray J of all people after a Halloween party back in Oct. Fortunately Chris Brown (yes, that Chris Brown) was there to diffuse the situation. 

Unfortunately, this incident would be the kickoff to several more bizarre Ray J moments which included a wide-ranging and weird interview with Nicki Minaj, allegations about attempts on his life and more. Ray j, Just stop. Seriously

Tyrese Not Retiring From Social Media

Though Tyrese Gibson has given us out fair share of memes and memorable interviews, he sparked joy all over when he announced he’d be retiring from social media—leading us all to believe we’d finally be spared from his antics.

Sadly, that admission proved to be a lie as the “Lately” singer continued to post and ended up adding even more fodder for conversation thanks to his emotional “Breakfast Club” interview and a bizarre Instagram post in which he refuted rumors he was gay and a devil worshipper.

R. Kelly’s Daughter Heartbreaking Abuse Revelation

Though it’s well documented just how much harm R. Kelly inflicted on numerous young girls and boys, the internet was set ablaze back in October when a new documentary about the disgraced R&B singer revealed that he’d allegedly sexually abused his own daughter Buku Abi. it’s already bad enough that he abused many young boys and girls but his own daughter?!? 31 years in prison is not enough for him, he got a sweetheart sentence.

Nikki Giovanni’s Death

In the last month of 2024, just when we thought we’d be spared another heartbreaking death: esteemed author, poet, and activist Nikki Giovanni passed away on Dec. 10. Just like with the previous deaths of Frankie Beverly, James Earl Jones, Tito Jackson, and Quincy Jones—Black folks around the country had to grieve once again over the loss of yet another legend

[reviewsclown]

Star Wars Episode VI; Return of the Jedi 1983

A second death star, I hope this doesn't set a trend for future movies vis a vis 'another death star'. Anyways, Jabba the Hutt and his band of freaks, skin colored tentacle man and gomorrean guards, a twi'lek is there. Jabba looks much better as a puppet and not a CGI edit inserted after the fact. Speaking of why's there a bunch of CGI aliens that look like dogshit that are here to sing a song and, look sexy? it's unclear. 5 million years of porn from the sexy green twi'lek. Anyways awesome rescue mission where everyone sneaks in, poor Han kind of, blind and weak from the freezing. 5 million more years of porn from slave bikini Leia. The Rancor was cool, they made a lot of toys of that thing. Whats the point of showing the fat white guy that owned the Rancor being sad about it's death, does that add anything to the plot or themes, the sand barges are cool, just an iconic vehicle in a way, the Sarlaac is also cool and iconic, and suffers from needless added CGI that, doesn't really make it ugly it just wasn't needed whatsoever. Boba Fett falls in a hole and for the next 40 years people make media related about him, even though he did literally nothing of note. Palpatine and Yoda continue being parallels it seems, but as palpatine becomes more present in the story, living on the death star, yoda leaves the story dying of old age, also I guess all jedi can dissappear when they die? I thought that was an Obi-Wan special but Yoda does it too, so maybe it's a thing about being powerful? Unclear, I think it's never elaborated on. Admiral Ackbar is cool, what a good costume it is, the rebel bases are always a neat collection of characters. Cool stealth mission with a stolen shuttle into the death star 2 where Luke and Vader can definitely sense each other through their newtype familial connection. I've always been a fan of the scout trooper designs and their sick-ass speeder bikes. Ewoks are weird little guys, teddy bears with creepy faces that have a tribal society and worship c3po like some kinda cargo cult, and eating the main characters. Anyways, this scene with Luke and Vader talking is very cool I think, redemption arcs are happening, palpatine's neat but not that much of a character, just an evil guy, and he doesn't need like 5 movies that give him depth, but can't win them all. Was it cruel to have the ewoks fight in a war they couldn't understand as led by their god-king c3po. This movie dedicated to the brave mujahideen ewoks. Parallels in Vader and Lukes fight, his hand got cut off… and it was a robot hand… just like Lukes hand…… also force lightning is awesome. very funny that Vader just picks up palpatine and throws him down a hole. In a marvelous showing of good ideas when the empire dies they show a bunch of planets we've never seen in the original trilogy that were added later. and also replacing redeemed vader force ghost with that guy that killed a bunch of kids, odd choice. But overall the celebration is a pretty good ending.

The edits in this show really well again how much better the puppets are than the CGI, way better Jabba than the first movie, way better all aliens than the first movie. it works for the ships they don't need to look super good, or at least it's less noticeable. Really good sword-fights in this movie much like the second one, they're sort of leaning into the flippy bullshit of the prequels? But it's not at that level yet they only do like 2 flips.

Final Review: Damn that was a good as hell movie, if you haven't seen the original trilogy, you really should sometime.

[chaos0pikachu]

As someone who was in fandom since like, the 4kids dub - then took a break and came back to the show years later - a lot of it has to do with a couple factors.

During the first go around when fandom was building out Sanji and Zoro were the only "hot" straw hats. That's not a knock on ppl shipping things for shallow hot reasons is gucci lord knows I've done it but like let's be real this was def a factor. Luffy wasn't "hot" and neither do/did ppl consider Ussop hot.

Sanji was more well rounded as a char than Luffy, this is a consequence of Oda's earlier storytelling. idk if this is an unpopular opinion or not but while I freaking ADORE the Romance Dawn trio the earlier chapters/episodes of One Piece are a bit thin and more straight forward action shounen. Zoro's backstory is pretty by-the-numbers, Luffy's backstory is also a mix of about him/about Shanks and not super fleshed out, Ussop is when we start to see a more fleshed out take on a backstory (but again naysayers say Ussop is ugly). Zoro's backstory is so tragedy free and mundane compared to other chars ppl are still convinced it's a fakeout and Kuina was secretly murdered by the World Government - r/onepiece is covered in these theories. Basically, when Sanji appeared he was a perfect "woobie"; thorough and tragic backstory, plus hot? Perfect woobie sad boi to project on and/or ship with (fandom loves shipping archetypes see migratory slash fandom for more on that)

Something that often happens in fandom is when a fandom has A Ship or The Fandom Ship (ie the big ship that seemingly the entire fandom ships) new fans will automatically gravitate towards that ship b/c it already has a built in community to interact with. I've seen this happen a lot with ships like Sterek (Teen Wolf) or Klance (Voltron). It's simply easier for new fans plus you have the Big Shipping Base coloring the perspective of new fans and how they'll see the media piece with pre-determined bias towards The Ship.

In more recent fandom discourse there's a lot of discouragement to ship Luffy with Zoro specifically b/c of the aroace handcanon for Luffy (which for some reason doesn't apply to luffy's most popular ship lawlu which has loads of explicit fic, doujin and fanart) not saying ppl can't headcanon luffy as aroace do your thing, spark your joy, just that I've seen this used as reason why you "can't/shouldn't" ship Luffy with Zoro in fanon

There's other factors involved, like fans liking the dynamic of enemies to lovers or rivals to lovers which with some flexibility zosan can fit. They do have some good moments in Wano that made me go "yeah I get it" but Wano started airing in 2019 and zosan has been The Ship for OP (western) fandom since the show starting airing in 1999.

In terms of OPLA there's also the intersection of Luffy being played by a visibly brown actor - when it comes to latin chars in media it's been my experience if they're light skinned they get exotified and hypersexualized (Poe from Star Wars, any char played by Pedro Pascal) and if they're Black or Brown they get desexualized and dismissed (Scott from Teen Wolf, Luffy from OPLA, Amaro from SVU). I think the exception I've seen is Lance from Voltron but his characterization in fandom was riddled with stereotypical issues that I don't even wanna get into.

This isn't like a ~callout~ or anything for zosan or any other ships mentioned or any specific headcanons what-have-you. I get why people ship zosan - sterek, klance, etc - and I so do not care if ppl ship this or that like it's all gucci

This is more a general discussion on fandom trends to explore the "why" of it's popularity and prominence in OP fandom from a fandom wizard of old.

So glad for your latest post about zosan because I started 1pc FULLY expecting to be bowled over by their interactions for how prevalent the ship is in the fandom and I’ve just….. been so confused about it… and wondering if I’m missing something…. like it’s not enemies to lovers, they’re not even rivals, they’re just like. Irritable coworkers who sometimes get in each other’s way…. Anyway ur so right about sansopp 🙏🙏

I didn't know ANYTHING about one piece when I watched opla (I didn't even know they were pirates) so I def didn't know about zsn. I walked away from the live action thinking 'damn the captain and first mate are NOT normal about each other' and 'luffy is sanji's little meow meow <3". I didn't even consider zoro and sanji as a dynamic outside of 'they're both trying to be the prettiest belle at the ball so that luffy will look at them'..... but I didn't really actively ship either. not even zolu (surprising I know)

upon learning about zsn I thought ok. this is clearly because I haven't watched the anime / read the manga. obviously there's something i'm missing. I read 400 chapters of the manga and am currently 450 episodes into the anime. there is obviously still something i'm missing because like you said, i'm seeing irritable coworkers. i'm not denying that they respect each other & care for each other as nakama but like...................like..................LIKE??

I'm never been a hate shipper, nor am I predisposed to ship things bc 'hot'. nothing against people who do obviously but my track record of otps is the exact opposite of the zsn dynamic. and going into the series not even knowing they were a popular ship. I have tried to see it (and obvi in the hate ship hot sex way I can see it) but other than that I have accepted that I will never get it. luffy x zoro & sanji x usopp on the other hand.....

[supernovaa-remnant]

yay, i get to be immortalized too :D

but oh my god, the marks people leave behind, i say as i shake you violently. another thing i lose my mind over when i think about it for too long.

because you are so right, it's not only about the ones that outlive us like buildings or art or whatever. like, for example, i still think about one of my ex-friends sometimes. we've known each other for years, did so many things together, but then shit happened and now we haven't talked or even seen each other in like four years. but i still remember her and the fun we had together so fondly.

and to think that's it the other way around too, that maybe the barista i once told i liked their pin still thinks about that sometimes and smiles at the memory like... it's fucking mind-blowing.

anyway, i'll stop now, or i'll be in danger of crying too.

okay, closing the chapter on interstellar... i'm gonna admit, asking me, a movie and tv show freak, about media was the worst (or best, depending on how you wanna look at it lol) decision ever, because i will give you a whole fucking list with reasons.

first of all, i know you like star trek so i hate to admit that i'm the enemy... i'm a star wars girlie.

jokes aside, i do love star wars, especially the original movies, rogue one (probably one of my favorite movies, mention it in my vicinity and i will talk for at least 30 minutes), and andor (the show). i just think that, excluding the last two movies, it's an amazing universe and a lot of the media that came from it is really fucking good. i adore it.

other sci-fi/sci-fi adjacent stuff i like:

ready player one (mostly the movie lol dives into virtual reality and it's influence on real life in the future, really fun and well-made)

dark (german show though from what i know it also got really popular on netflix. a lot of stuff i think you could like, since it's central storyline centers around time travel via wormhole lol actually one of my favorite shows ever, it is so insanely good)

roswell, new mexico (silly alien show lol not that serious compared to some other stuff here but it's fun and the plotline actually is pretty interesting)

the swarm (another german show though it is made in english. this is the adjacent i mentioned above since i think it's not 100% sci-fi but has a lot of elements to it. set on earth in our time with marine life slowly turning against humanity. another show that's super well made)

and that's everything i can think of right now (as if this ask isn't long enough already). please let me know if you decide to check any of these out because i need someone to talk about it with lol

there's a lot of aspects of humanity that make me emotional—the way we impact each other's lives in seemingly unnoticeable ways, the urge to leave proof we existed (the Golden Record we sent to space that will still be there floating in the void long after the Earth has been swallowed by the sun), the fact that we've found new ways to love (because we didn't use to be able to know so much about people across the globe, but now, in this age of globalization, it's lead to people finding new ways to love). there's so much and I would go on longer and in more depth if I didn't feel like I was about to cry lol (please do ask me to elaborate more though if you want—I'd gladly talk more about this with more prompting lol).

I think it's been lovely to hear you talk about media and cinematography :D I love it when people talk abt stuff they're passionate about

[dramatic gasp] a star wars girlie? I'm sorry sky... I fear we can no longer be friends [single tear runs down cheek as I turn away and dramatically leave the room]

uh.. anyway, jokes aside, I think Star Wars is pretty cool. I watched it more when I was younger. Idk why, but it doesn't appeal to me as much as other sci-fi. Just personal preference, I think. I did really like the original movies, though. (Although I must admit I don't remember them well... maybe I should re-watch).

Star Trek is the sci-fi I've been primarily consuming for the past couple years, and I am a Star Trek girlie (ignore the fact that I haven't watched the original series), but deep down in my core, I'm more of a Stargate girlie. Samantha Carter is the character who inspired me to be an astrophysicist, and the characters in that show (specifically Sg-1) feel like they raised me in some ways lmao. There's a lot to be said on the more problematic aspects of Stargate (the most noticeable being the fact that it's built upon the ancient aliens conspiracy.. yikes), but I think there's a lot to love about it despite that :3

I'm a big fan of 90s-early 2000s sci-fi (probably bc of my dad tbh) which includes, like, tng-ds9-voy era of star trek, stargate, sacntuary, and farscape to name a fwew. First sci-fi I was ever a really big fan of was Doctor Who though.

Uh, but enough about my sci-fi interests.

Those all sound like really cool shows!! I'll say it now that I am, like, notoriously bad at watching recommended shows (esp bc I'm busy w/ uni and stuff), so apologies in advance if I don't get to them. I'd love to hear you talk more about them though and what you like about the shows (whether that be storytelling, cinematography, both). If you want to, ofc.