#will never understand people who refuse to engage with fan works for a specific ship. like you are missing out on some excellent stuff

[thermodynamic-comedian]

i feel about boukelley the same way i feel about jonelias and that feeling is "if you ship this, you have understood the canon better than most other fans, and i will read your fics and look at your fanart and read your posts, even though my own agendas are of an entirely different kind."

[notsuchacleverboyq]

My Favourite 007 Headcanons

Based on this Instagram post I posted a while ago.

1) 007 and 006

We all know Alec Trevelyan (even if I haven't watched this movie in more or less three years). He is the agent 006 who at some point happens to betray 007 in GoldenEye.

Some fans have started shipping Brosnan's 007 and Alec Trevelyan, making them the most lethal ship I've ever heard of.

I happened to read an exquisite Fanfiction in which Q always refused to introduce his family to James (who was his lover). Obviously, Bond got pretty mistrustful of the entire situation and decided to secretly follow Q when he went visiting his parents. Bond fell into a trap, literally speaking, and found himself in front of the former 007 (Pierce Brosnan) and Alec Trevelyan.

I have no idea about how the author dealt with Alec's betray, but that's not really important for the post anyway.

After a talk with Q and his family, Bond found out some things:

The former 007 and 006 were engaged (the ship I previously talked about);

Q 007's biological son and 006's stepson;

Q has a step sister, who's 006's biological daughter.

The best part of the Fanfiction was that no one in the family happened to be straight.

After this, I immediately loved the idea of 007 and 006 being engaged and raising Q together, mostly because it gave an explanation to the quartermaster's skills at dealing with Bond's daily shit and everything.

This is the Fanfiction.

2) Tanner and Q

I'm not actually sure whether I have a real position about this Headcanon, nor if I actually like it, but I suppose it could make sense.

I once happened to read a Fanfiction (again) in which they gave to understand that Q and Tanner had been in a relationship in the past.

I mean, why not?

According to this Headcanon, Q and Tanner used to be together when Q still wasn't working for MI6 or had not earned an high position yet; they eventually broke up due to professionalism matters or because they agreed the relationship couldn't have quite worked.

I have honestly never thought about Tanner as queer, I have thought for years that he always came home to his wife or girlfriend after the workshift was over; but I don't dislike the idea.

Furthermore, it's obvious how Q and Tanner get along really well.

3) Q is Trans

⚠��There might be a minor No Time to Die spoiler at this point but it has nothing to do with the plot itself⚠️

This is one of my favourites.

There are three main versions of this Headcanon:

Trans man;

Bigender;

Genderfluid.

Whatever your opinion is, Q spreads queer energy: it's undeniable and, most importantly, FINALLY CANON.

(He's not canonically trans, but you get what I mean).

Anyway, I'm really fond of this headcanon, I think I made it clear, and for one specific reason: Q is a role model for some trans fans (and cis) who use Q's character to cope with their body dysphoria.

I happen to fall in this category.

We find ourselves in a situation in which the relationship with our body can present as particularly difficult (whether we're talking about body dysphoria due to transition or having a "too thin" type of body, for example, even if the last example is about something different).

In this way, people find someone who's similar to them and has the same problems: they feel less alone in the struggle.

4) Bond is Rufus Sixsmith's Reincarnation

⚠️ALERT SPOILER⚠️

This needs to be explained meticulously.

I think it makes sense, but don't ask why because I don't know the correct answer to such a question.

Both Bond and Sixsmith are blond with grey/blue eyes. I think we can agree on it.

But the characters are completely different: Bond is an impulsive dickhead, while Sixsmith is considerably more patient and reflexive.

But why does this theory make sense?

They have one thing in common: Ben Whishaw.

Both of these characters interact with one of Whishaw's character in the movie: Robert Frobisher and Q.

It doesn't matter that Sixsmith was Robert's lover and Q, sadly, just Bond's colleague.

However, this Headcanon can be well understood only by explaining what happens in Cloud Atlas.

The book and the movie result different about the resurrection we're talking about:

The book: in the book the main character has always reborn as the main character. In fact, they all have an identical mark on the shoulder because they are the same person, just living a different life in a different body. And that's how Sixsmith recognises Robert in Luisa in the moment they meet in the lift; he literally asks: "Have we already met?".

The movie: the movie is a bit more controversial than the book. They decided to use the same actors to play different roles (so you could see an actor who's played a protagonist playing a side character). Because of this, my first interpretation of the movie was that every character reincarnates at some point and might happen to be a protagonist. In fact, the movie is mostly about karma and how someone who's been unlucky and mistreated by others will be in the opposite situation in the next life (and vice versa). Also, the characters keep interacting with eachother, meeting through time, as if they were naturally drawn forward eachother. Ben Whishaw's characters and James Darcy's ones are the only that never interact again after Robert's death. The problem is that, even in the movie, Sixsmith asks Luisa if they had already met: it might be because she's a journalist and he might have heard about her, or because he sensed the mark on her skin (?).

Following the movie theory (and cowardly avoiding the problem) the Headcanon can make sense.

If it's true that characters are drawn to eachother, Sixsmith and Robert can meet again while being respectively Bond and Q.

Also, Sixsmith dies in 1973 and it is acceptable for Bond to be born around that year. Furthermore, being Robert's reincarnation still alive at the time (meaning that he died later), this gives us the age difference we need for Bond and Q.

It's a good theory for 00Q fans because Robert and Sixsmith were lovers and 00Q has more chances to happen; for Cloud Atlas fans, it's good because, finally, Robert and sixsmith can meet again.

5) Q is a a Former 004

Still Fanfictions.

That said Fanfiction, was about Bond being assigned a mission together with 004, who turned out to be Q (who wasn't Q yet).

There was also a oneshot in which Q bursted in the field to help Bond and he reveals he used to be 004.

Why is this Headcanon good?

Because it gives us a character development which we could have gotten before if they hadn't decided to destroy the Spectre script.

Why did Q leave the field?

There are two opinions about it:

It wasn't for him: just like Moneypenny, at some point he decided to leave the field because he noticed he couldn't fit in such a profession;

An accident: there was a pretty rough accident during a mission that got Q leave the field as soon as possible (the accident can change).

There is also a theory about Q being a former MI5 agent but leaving the job due to a shooting in which he got hit.

6) Q is Vesper's brother

YES.

I have already made an entire post about Q and Vesper being ridiculously similar: the hair, the eyes, the way they interact with Bond, their temper... They're almost identical.

This lays out all of the needed elements for Q and Vesper to be siblings.

There are also interesting factors that could be used for Fanfictions related to this:

Bond being overprotective of Q;

Q not knowing for sure about what happened to Vesper and getting mad at Bond once he finds out;

Bond getting desperate once and if he falls for Q;

Ecc.

Also, if we consider the actors, both Ben Whishaw and Eva Green were born in the same year, which could make Q and Vesper twins, other than siblings.

7) Q's name

We know that this version of Q lacks of a personal identity: he doesn't have a name, while the previous versions did.

Fans have been forced to make up one by themselves. The most common choices are: Arthur, Andrew, Thomas, Daniel (London Spy fans ಥ‿ಥ), Ethan, Gabriel, Kian...

But there are also fans who follow a sort of Headcanon: making a quick research, internet would tell that every M in 007 movies (and books) had a surname that started with an M; these fans follow this logic.

Just like in M's case, they tend to use a name that starts with Q for the quartermaster: Quinn, Quincey, Quince...

I honestly love "Quincey", despite having used "Arthur" for a quite long period; just like for the trans!Q Headcanon, I'll start using "Quincey" and won't stop.

[scorpionyx9621]

Do you think Jason Todd fandom is kinda toxic? Because it seems like NO MATTER what DC do, there'll always be complains. Forget the bad adaptation like Titans. Even Judd Winick cannot escape the criticism with how he potrayed Robin!Jason. They just never satisfied.

SORRY, IT TOOK ME SO LONG TO RESPOND TO THIS. I just moved from Washington D.C. to Seattle, which, for my non-American friends, that's 4442km away. And I DROVE THERE ALL BY MYSELF. And now I'm trying to find new work in a new city and trying to stay mentally healthy and positive. Life is exciting but hard and scary.

*sighs*

As someone who was a fandom elder with V*ltr*n. I've seen some of the worst when it comes to fandom behavior. I'm talking people baking food with shaving razors and trying to give them to the showrunners. I'm talking leaking major plot details and refusing to take it down unless they make their ship canon (I am looking at you, Kl*nce stans) For the most part, DC Comics has had a decades-long reputation of treating their fans like trash and not caring what they think so from what I've seen, we all just grumble and complain in our corners of the internet about how we don't like how X comic portrays Jason Todd.

The challenge with Jason Todd is that he's your clinical anti-hero, the batfamily's Draco in Leather Pants, he's a jerkass woobie, and on top of all of that, he's a Tumblr sexyman. It's a perfect storm for a very fun but frustrating character to be a fan of. It doesn't help that every writer decides to re-invent the wheel every time Jason comes up so his canon lore is confusing at best and inconsistent as a standard.

I guess starting with a general brief on who Jason is and what is uniform about him with every instance he's appeared in comics/media.

Grew up in a poor family in Gotham with a dad who was a petty-mid-level criminal, and a mother who dies of a drug overdose.

Survives on the street on his own by committing petty crimes and potentially even engaging in sexual acts to keep himself alive.

Is cornered by Batman and taken in after Dick Grayson quits/is fired

Becomes the second Robin, but is known for being the harsher, more brutal Robin.

Is killed by Joker after being tortured, but somehow comes back to life and regains senses through the Lazarus Pit

Resolves himself to be better than Batman by basically being Batman but kills people.

Where there has been a lot of conflict in the fandom is the fact that Jason Todd is not a character that is written consistently. DC Comics loves to go with the narrative that Jason was "bad from the start" and was the "bad robin" when, yes, he has trouble controlling his anger, but he also still is just as invested in seeing the best of Gotham City and trying to be a positive change for the world as any other DC Comics hero.

Where I get frustrated with the fandom is its ability to knit-pick every detail of a comic they don't like while completely disregarding everything that makes the comics great and worth it to read. My example being Urban Legends. To which most people had pretty mixed reactions to. I was critical of the comic at first but as it went along I ended up really liking it. I have a feeling DC Comics went to Chip Zdarsky and told him he had 6 issues to bring Jason back into the Bat Family, and honestly he didn't do a bad job. Did it feel rushed? Absolutely. I wish there was more development of Jason and Bruce's characters and their dynamic as a whole. However, where I see a lot of people being angry and upset with Urban Legends is that they feel Zdarsky needlessly wrote Jason as an incompetent fool who needs Bruce to save him.

Whether or not that was the intention of Zdarsky is up to debate. However, and this may be controversial, but I don't think he wrote Jason Todd out of character at all. For as fearsome, intimidating, and awesome as Red Hood is. Jason is a character who is absolutely driven by his emotions. Why do you think he donned the role of Red Hood? As a response to his anger towards The Joker for killing him, and towards Bruce for not taking action against The Joker and for seemingly replacing him so quickly after he died. Jason didn't care about being the murderous Robin Hood or for being the bloody hammer of justice against N*zi's and P*d*ph*les. He only cared originally about making The Joker and Bruce pay. It wasn't until he trained under the best assassins in the world and realized most of them were horrific criminals who trafficked children and were p*dos that Talia began to realize that the teachers that she sent Jason to train under started dying horrific and painful deaths.

The entire story of the Cheer story in Batman Urban Legends was started because it finally forced some consequences upon Jason. Tyler, aka Blue Hood's father was a drug dealer who gave his supply to his wife and kids. And when Tyler's father admitted he gave the drugs to Tyler, it immediately made him fall within the self-imposed philosophical kill-list of Jason Todd. And Jason, well, he proceeds to kill Tyler's father. When this happens, Jason is in shock. Tyler's dad fit the bill to easily and justifiably be killed by Jason. We've never seen Jason having to deal with the consequences of being a murderous vigilante on a micro-level. When Jason realizes what he's done in that he's murdered Tyler's dad, he's shocked. He tells Babs the truth. He does a rational thing because he's in shock. He doesn't know what to do, he never has had to face the consequences of his actions as Red Hood and now the gravity of befriending a child as a vigilante hero who kills people just set in when he killed the father of the same child he was just introduced to.

(Oh here's a little aside because it had to be said, Jason would not have been a good father or a good mentor to Tyler and absolutely should not have been his new Robin. Jason is a man who is in his early 20's (not saying men in their early 20's can't be good fathers at all) who is a brutal serial killer using the guise of a vigilante anti-hero to let him escape most of the law. the complications of having the man who murdered your father adopt you and make you his sidekick are way too numerous for me to explain in a long-winded already heavy Tumblr essay post. There's a reason why we don't advocate for a story where Joe Chill adopted Bruce Wayne or one where Tony Zucco took in Dick Grayson.)

The next biggest argument is that they feel that Jason is giving up his guns as a means to just be invited back into the Bat-Family. To which I will tell anyone who has that argument to go actually read Urban Legends. Already have and still have that argument? Please re-read it. Don't want to? That's okay, I will paste the images from the comic where Jason specifically says that he doesn't want to give up his weapons for Bruce and his real reasoning down below since the comic isn't exactly readily accessible.

Jason gave up the guns because he felt the gravity of what he had done and knows how it'll effect Tyler. Thankfully his mom is alive and in recovery. But Tyler doesn't have a father anymore. And Jason killed Tyler's father. It may have been in accordance to Jason's philosophy, but it was a case where it blurred the lines. Jason Todd isn't a black and white character, just very dark gray. He doesn't kill aimlessly like the Joker. If you are on Jason's list you probably have done something pretty horrific, and also just in general, being in his way or being a threat to him. Mind you, in early days of Red Hood and the Outlaws (Image below) Jason almost killed 10 innocent civilians in a town in Colorado all because they saw him kill a monster. That being said, Jason isn't aimless in his kills.

(Also can we just take a moment to appreciate Kenneth Rocafort's art? DC Comics said we need to rehabilitate Jason Todd's image and Kenneth Rocafort said hold my beer: It's so SO GOOD)

That being said, the key emphasis in the story of Cheer asides from trying to introduce Jason Todd back into the Bat Family and give an actual purpose for him being there, other than him just kind of being there ala Bowser every time he shows up for Go Kart racing, Tennis, Golf, Soccer, and the Olympic games when Mario invites him, is that Jason and Bruce ultimately both want the same thing. Jason wants to be welcomed back into the family and to be loved and appreciated. Bruce want's Jason back as his son and wants to love and protect Jason. Both of these visions are shown in the last chapter of Cheer while under the effect of the Cheer Gas. It's ultimately this love and appreciation they both have for each other that helps them overcome their challenge and win.

Jason Todd is a character who, just like Bruce, has been through so much pain and so much hate in his life. The two are meant to parallel each other. While Bruce chose to see the best in everyone, giving every rogue in his gallery the option to be helped and give them a second chance, hence why he never kills, Jason has a similar view on wanting to protect the public, but he understands that some crimes are so heinous they cannot be forgiven, or that some habitual criminals are due to stay habitual criminals, and need to be put down. But at the end of the day, the two of them both try to protect people in their own ways.

I am aware that through the writings of various DC Comics authors such as Scott Lobdell and Judd Winick, the two have had a very tumultuous relationship. And rightfully so, I am by no means saying that Scott Lobdell writing an arc where Bruce literally beats Jason to within an inch of his life in Red Hood and the Outlaws, nor Judd Winick's interpretation of Under the Red Hood where Bruce throws the Batarang at Jason's neck, slicing his throat and leaving him ambiguously for dead at the end of the comic is appropriate considering DC Comics seems to be trying everything they can to integrate Jason back into the family. That being said, a lot of these writings have shaped the narrative of Jason and Bruce's relationship and have an integral effect on the way the fandom views the two. It doesn't help that Zdarsky acknowledged Lobdell's life-beating of Jason by Bruce at the very end of Cheer by having Bruce give Jason his old outfit back as a means of mending the fence between the two of them. That does complicate a lot of things in terms of how they are viewed by the fandom and helps to cause an even greater divide between the two.

Regardless, I want to emphasize the fact that Jason Todd is a part of the family of his own accord. Yes, he's quite snarky and deadpan in almost every encounter. However, Jason is absolutely a part of the family and has been for a while of his own will. There's a great moment in Detective Comics that emphasizes this. Jason cares about his family because it is his found family. Yes, they may be warry about him and use him as a punching back and/or heckle him. At the end of the day, we're debating the family dynamics of a fictional playboy billionaire vigilante whose kleptomania took the form of adopting troubled children and turning them into vigilante heroes. Jason Todd wants a family that will love and support him. This is a key definition of his character at its most basic. This was proven during the events of Cheer and is being reenforced by DC Comics every time they get the opportunity to do so.

Now, none of this is to say that I hate Judd Winick. I do not, I don't like the fact that in all of his writings of Jason, he just writes him as a dangerous psychopath, and Winick himself admits to seeing Jason as nothing much more than a psychopath. Yet Winick is the one who the majority of the fandom clings to as the one true good writer of Jason Todd because 'Jason was competent, dangerous, smart' Listen, friends, Jason is all of that and I will never deny it. However, what I love about Jason isn't that he's dangerously smart of that writers either write him as angsty angry Tumblr sexyman bait or that they write him as an infantile man child with a gun. There's a large contention of this fandom that has an obsession with Jason Todd being this vigilante gunman who is hot and sexy and while I definitely get the appeal. It is very creepy and downright disturbing that all of you hyperfixate on his use of guns and ability to be a murderer. It is creepy and I'm not necessarily here for it.

What I love about Jason Todd is that despite all of the pain, all of the heartache, all of the betrayal, and bullying, and death, and anguish. Jason Todd is one of the most loving and supportive characters in all of DC Comics. Jason has been through so much in his life, but he still chooses to love. He still chooses to see the bright side in people. Yes, he takes a utilitarian approach and chooses to kill certain villains, but at the end of the day he wants to see a better world, and he wants to be loved. It takes so much courage and so much heart to learn to love again after one has been abused or traumatized. I would not blame Jason at all if he said fuck it and just went full solo and vigilante evil. He has every right to, but he still chooses to be with the Bat Family of his own accord. That's something that I see a lot of in myself. I have been through a lot of trauma and yet I try to be a better person myself in any way that I can. It is extremely admirable of Jason to allow love back into his heart when he really doesn't need to. He kills and he protects because he has this love of society. It may have been shaped by anger and hatred, but Jason has found his place amongst people who love him and value him. I think Ducra, from Red Hood and the Outlaws put it best in the image given below.

To end this tangent, I love Jason Todd and all of his sexy dangerousness, but it's far more than that. As much as Jason may be dangerous and snarky, he loves his family without a shadow of a doubt. I look up to Jason Todd because despite all of his pain and all of his trauma, he still choses to love. Jason Todd is a character who is someone I love because despite all of his flaws and having a very toxic fandom, he still serves as a character filled with so much heart and so much passion. I wish more writers would understand that. But for now I will live with what I have. Even though the fandom may be vocal about it's hatred for his characterization, I choose to love Jason regardless because he is a character who chooses love and acceptance regardless of his pain. Jason Todd is by no means a good person in any sense of the word. He has easily killed upwards of 100 people by now. He is a character who is flawed and complex but ultimately is one who powers forwards and finds love and heart in a place from so much pain and anguish. That is what I love about Jason Todd. After all, to quote a famous undead robot superhero, "What is grief, if not love persevering?" Jason Todd chooses to love despite all of the trauma and pain and grief. Yes, he is hardened in his exterior, but inside there is a man with a lot of love to give and someone who deserves the world in my eyes.

[rainbowsky]

Final round-up of fan fic asks

I've gotten a few more interesting responses to the fan fic discussion so I'm going to round them all up here. This will be my final post on the topic until/unless there's a dramatic new development, or a particularly notable response I want to highlight. Thanks to everyone who brought their thoughts and experiences to the topic. I hope everyone at least feels heard.

The biggest piece of advice that I would like to offer is for everyone to focus on what they love rather than what they hate. If we all did that, the world would be a better place. Alongside that, I'd like to remind everyone to please support authors whose work you like. It's so important. Give them a kudos, give them a nice comment, recommend their work to others. You never know what kind of grief and harassment they are dealing with to bring you these great stories, and our support means a lot.

This is in reference to previous posts here and here.

Anonymous asked:

With regard to fandom and fan fic issue, my years of experience being part of very large fandoms has led me to believe that big accounts are v important in facilitating and enforcing the general consensus of the whole fandom. Unless there will be big accs who'll remind everyone of being respectful & just not being a dick over other's preferences, nothing will change.

This is also the reason why I think certain solo fandoms have adapted weird and twisted narratives as their general fandom story because no big acc has tried to police them & and say hey pls be rational. Whether we like it or not, in a place where how far voices, ideas, tweets, posts get heard is based on the number of followers you have, big accs will have the power and influence in creating/curating/shifting the narratives.

So, if you want to know why your/our fandom thinks like this in general, look at what big accs are tweeting/posting, look at what ideas & values they follow, look at their preferences or how strongly they react to certain situations. it's taxing and toxic for big accs given the nature of social media these days, but it's also the reality of system, the more followers/audience you have, the more influence you will have.

So to anyone reading this I hope we all practice more restraint and reflection before we post anything. Remember that words, no matter what medium you write it in, will always carry weight.

So true. It is easy - even for myself who spends a fair chunk of time answering people's asks - to forget that people can sometimes be impressionable and what we say can influence people whether that's our intent or not. I get used to thinking of myself as a regular guy just doing my own thing when sometimes my thoughts and words go well beyond where I initially posted them.

I think it's important for us to be careful what we say, and it's equally important to be careful what we take from what other people say. Especially when it comes to big claims. Always get a second, third, fourth opinion and don't be afraid to ask for clarification if something doesn't sit right or sounds confusing.

It's also important to reflect on how our words and actions might affect other people's experience of fandom, and err on the side of 'live and let live' wherever possible. It's great to have our own preferences and to champion them, but we should try to do so in a way that leaves space for other people and perspectives.

The more unique perspectives and the more friendly, open dialog there is, the healthier the community will be as a whole.

There's nothing wrong with encouraging and guiding growth in the particular areas we are interested in, as long as it doesn't step on, oppress or attack those who are peacefully enjoying something different.

Anonymous 2 asked: bjyx fans attacking gdgdbaby for including zsww/lsfy dynamics in an event named bjyx then turning right around and attacking the zsww/lsfy event organizer for excluding bjyx? god, can you hear my facepalm and sigh of resignation and incredulity from over there? im genuinely not surprised that they're trying to drive an entire part of the fandom out by disgusting them (and me) with these immature tactics. i believe what im about to say next will sound quite bait-y and i respect your decision 1/?

should you choose not to post this. but i do know that it is not only me, in fact there are many out there, that is of this opinion. we just dont talk about it on twitter to avoid the potential mess it will bring lol. okay, here goes nothing. (do note that im talking about the majority here, not every single person is like this) so bjyx fans tend to be cishet females whereas zsww/lsfy fans are more diverse in terms of age and gender, and most of them are part of the queer community too 2/?

i would like to clarify that most of these zsww/lsfy fans are not dynamic exclusive (in the sense that they are friendly and interact with all ggdd fans) they just prefer to "identify" themselves as zsww/lsfy fans (on twitter specifically) just to form a distinction from bjyx fans who mostly are dynamic exclusive (as in; they do not consume non-bjyx content, and straightup refuse to interact with non-bjyx fans, often blocking them). as a result, id say that the zsww/lsfy communiy is way more 3/?

mature and respectful (after all, they're mostly queer people talking about a queer ship) whereas many problems in this fandom, such as the homophobia, adamantly insisting on "drawing lines" between dynamics, stem from the bjyx exclusive fans, comprised of cishet females who "may not know better". so, it is of no surprise to me that they're resorting to these immature tactics of calling gg unsavory names, and organizing retaliatory events with controversial topics in an attempt to "purify". 4/4

I trust that you have arrived at that theory through your own experience and observation. I haven't personally spent much time immersed in this stuff so I can't claim to have any real insight or expertise. If you say that's your experience of it, then at the very least that's how you've seen things up to this point.

I just want to say that I think we should always be careful about making assumptions about people's age, gender/gender identity, etc.

There are plenty of good reasons to avoid doing that; because those assumptions could be very wrong, because those assumptions are often laced with ageism, sexism, etc., because those assumptions - even when correct - might not be an accurate basis for the conclusions we draw.

But the primary reason I recommend avoiding those type of assumptions is because anything that enables us to clump a group of people together in our minds like that will tend to make them easier to demonize and dehumanize. They are no longer individuals who are each responsible for their own unique perspectives, they are now 'the X group' who is known for 'A B C series of easily attackable ideas or behaviors'.

If we attribute undesirable traits and behaviors to a group of people we feel opposed to in some way, that makes us feel more righteous and justified in behaving unfairly toward them, dismissing their humanity and warring with them. It's just risky behavior to engage in, even when it's well-intentioned.

There might actually be some truth to what you're saying. It could very well be that most of these people are young, inexperienced, heteronormative, etc. but if that's the case then we should try to use those traits to better understand and empathize rather than to better dismiss and discredit.

Just my two cents on that.

It can be really frustrating dealing with what feels like other people attacking us, trying to oppress us, etc. - especially when there are more of them than there are of us. In my experience the best solutions to that sort of problem are generally the ones that focus on what we are doing and want to do rather than what they are doing that we don't want them to do.

As I am always preaching, we can't control what other people say, do or think. The only thing we have any control over is what we say, do and think (and how we respond to what they say, do and think).

I have found in my experience that the moment I step out of a conflict mindset and instead step into a problem-solving mindset, everything starts to come together. I feel better, my outlook is more positive, I can begin to see solutions and allies rather than problems and enemies, and most of all, I become more focused on what I am doing than what others are doing.

So I would recommend everyone who is invested in resolving these conflicts focus on that. "How can we best showcase and encourage the types of stories we enjoy?" instead of "How can we stop these other people from doing things we dislike?"

Anonymous 3 asked:

Hello again! It’s anon #3 from the fanfic post. I really do appreciate reading your thoughts on various issues like this, so thank you for always taking time to write in depth. As for supporting without going to war, the simplest way has always been to just show appreciation for the creators, hype them up. Kudos are the easiest way on ao3 but comments in addition are great. This goes for all content—art, fics, vids..etc. Creators love to see and read how people react to their content. Sharing is also great, fic recs are very helpful, just be cautious with art and reposting though. Hope this helps a bit!

Thanks so much, Anon. I think this is excellent advice. And it's true that appreciation is great, but helping to expand the audience is also great. Recommending stories, pointing people to the pages/websites of artists we like (as opposed to reposting), sharing our own ideas and approaches, encouraging people to try new things... all of this helps build healthier communities.

And here's another one: WRITE! DRAW! CREATE!

I urge anyone with creative interests or talents to bring their voices to the community because we all can benefit from hearing from you.

Thanks again everyone for sharing your thoughts on this issue. I hope that over time we can all work in positive ways to improve the situation.

I think this subject has been well-covered now so I'm going to retire it for the time being. If anyone still feels they want to discuss it further please feel free to message me privately. Thanks.

[confessionsofaloudmouth]

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard; a blog post by Chelbey Trump

Happy Sunday, everyone! I’m generally going to be posting on Sundays because it gives me all of the weekend to write them. Also, you’ll catch on to the structures of these posts as we go.

This week, I am going to be discussing the novel Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard. Published in 2015v by Simon and Schuster, the novel was on the New York Time’s Bestsellers list. (In the future, I would like to write a blog post about that particular achievement because, let’s face it, almost every book has been on it.)

Characters:

Mare Barrow; A 17 year-old pitpocketer, living in the slummiest part of a country, with a younger sibling who has potential for their life, parents who are loyal to-said country even though they’re given the short end of the stick, and a male best friend who is, undoubtedly, in love with her. Come on down, Katniss Everdeen! Oh, sorry, I meant Beatrice Prior. America Singer? Oh, right this novel is uniquely science-fiction, even though it follows all of the rules of a dystopian-fiction series. Ehem: I hate this character. Her arch, though not necessary to the forward motion of the story, was lost completely by a million different subplots and, even, the main plot. I like the idea that, in the midst of becoming the face of the rebellion, she became less of an individual person and more of a loyal person to her people. That being said, she was incredibly selfish, with her pity-part-for-one attitude simply because she was born into the Stilts. She took for granted her sister’s opportunity to provide for their family by dragging into a scheme which destroyed her life. Did she save her by acting the part of princess? Yes, but, c’mon: It was either marry Maven or be killed. I hope that she loses this attitude within the next couple books because;

Cal Tiberias; What a hunk! Charming, self-less, sensible, and a future-king? Cal was a strong character, although it could be said that he was weak due to his loyalty to his father which was conditioned inside his brain from a young age. He turned his back on the lower part of his people to stay true to the upper, wealthy, ��better’ half. He deserved better than this, after showing traits that he was, well, better than this! I understand it worked for the plot line, but how juicy would it have been to see Cal stand up to his father? I loved how passionate he was, though. Mare thought he didn’t care about the divide, but he was noble in saying he didn’t want violence to be what closed said-divide. He was willing to put his men on the same level as the Red soldiers, including himself, to fight the war. That’s hot. In the end, when he defended Mare even though she had offended him, I fell more in love with his character. He had stayed true to himself- or who he was meant to be- instead of a stupid girl, but when they turned their backs on him, he was ready to die with honor alongside that dumb female (synonyms!) If Cal was still the general, then I’d say:

Maven Tiberias; If Cal is a hunk, Maven is that nerdy, attractive guy. He was charming from start to finish even though he was, ya know, the ‘bad’ guy. It was hard to believe him even as the bad guy, however, because he only 17 and played Mare like a game of Chess. It’s understandable that he had, like Cal, been conditioned to love his mother and her cause for all of his life, that the king and Cal were enemies, that Mare could never possibly love him. But, Aveyard literally threw us twenty pages from the end of the novel. It felt rushed, uncomfortable and, well, forced. Overall, I still love his character and I’m excited to see him as a king in the next three books.

Queen Elara and King Tiberias; The. Best. Female. Character. What a literal queen! She didn’t care about anyone’s feeling, had powers which made her stronger than pretty much everyone, and waited so long to let her husband’s head roll so she and her son could rule. That’s amazing! I loved her smug attitude which was revolutionary because she was still a lady. She chided Mare for not acting like a said-lady and did so herself while still manipulating everyone and anyone. We dont see enough strong female characters who are still very much feminine, and we deserve to. Now, for the king: Off with his head! I’m so glad he’s dead because I dont think I could have stood another second of his toxic masculinity. That’s all I’ll say about that.

Ruth, Gisa, and Daniel Marrow; I wish we could have a family which is matriarchal. Too many books rely on normal societorial standards fo household and I’m slightly over it. I understand that in a normal kingdom, men, like Daniel, were the war hero’s, honorably discharged, wise, older, and the most-looked up to in the family. But, c’mon, Mare could literally manipulate electricity and her father couldn’t have made dinner? Her mother was too sweet and quiet and her father too quiet and judgmental. It was too basic and boring. However, I feel awful for Gisa: She absolutely deserved so much more than what she was given by Mare’s horrible decisions.

Honorable Mentions; Kilorn was just so annoying, trying to be masculine yet show his affection to Mare. Get over her, bud, she’s fighting a revolution! Evangeline was annoying, yet so, so satisfying to read about. She was exactly like Queen Elara with all the overwhelming traits of King Tiberias. Lucas, I felt, could have been used a lot more sufficiently than he was. Julian, too, was lost in the fast-paced motion of the novel. Overall, the relationships everyone formed with one another were not illustrated well through the novel. I refuse to believe Mare was falling for Maven, or Cal for Mare, or that Julian truly cared about Mare as much as he said he did because I saw no build up of that love.

Settings:

What Aveyard lacks in characters, she makes up for in description. Although sometimes it felt like she was going overboard with her language usage, fo rate majority of the time, I could see exactly what she was discussing. Her most creative ideas for setting were the forest which was able to prevent pollution from Gray Town, the usage of The Capital River running through the entire kingdom, and the bridge separating Archean and the Silver residencies.

Plot Lines:

Reds vs. Silvers; I hate and love the idea of the high-class citizens having silver-flushed skin and literally silver blood. It took the first half of the book for my mind to comprehend the distinction because I was too focused on hating Mare Barrow (just kidding!) I loved the moment when Evangeline dug her nails into Mare’s arm in order to draw red blood so that her identity would be revealed. But, I hated that there was no explanation as to why there was separation between the two classes.

The Love Triangle (Quartet?); How grossed out would you be if your brother was engaged to the girl you just kissed and made-out with her on a regular basis? Well, put yourself into Cal’s shoes and see you feel. I knew from the moment Cal pretended to be a Red citizen that he was the love interest for Mare- not that she didn’t end up having two others. The personification of his body heat connected to the feelings Mare would have for him, and that was interesting to read about. However, Maven had to be thrown into the mix because he was engaged to her for literal marketing reasons. I shipped Maven and Mare so hard, but Maven apparently did not. I wouldn’t call it a love quartet because we all know Evangeline didn’t actually love Cal.

Brother vs. Brother; The idea of Cal and his father vs. Maven and his mother reminded me of Reign and the relationship between Francis, Queen Elizabeth, Henry and Sebastian. As a fan of that show, I loved this power struggle. The idea of Cal being the OG son and Maven his half-brother showed that his blood did run deep with the Tiberias’. It allowed for him to feel disconnected and to want to follow his mother’s lead to power.

Symbolism and Themes; Let’s be honest here: There were none. Besides the fact that the division between the Reds and Silvers could stand for racism in any and all societies, the novel itself lacked depth. You shouldn’t look to this novel for guidance or meaning. Rather, it is a quick, cute read. Mare’s earrings stood fo her brothers, and eventually Kiloran, but that was literally given to us within the first five chapters. Most of the themes lied along the man vs. nature due to the issue of biological desterminism, and man vs. man for the revolution.

Dream Cast:

Jaz Sinclair as Mare Barrow

Charles Melton as Cal Tiberias

Tati Gabrielle as Evangeline

Jaeden Martell as Maven Calore

Melora Hardin as Queen Elara

I know, I know, this is not everyone. But, these are the only characters I truly felt needed to be played by specific people. And, yes, some are highly debatable, such as Melora because of her comedic timing, but I think these actors could play these characters well.

Quote Corner:

“The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.”

“Flame and shadow. One cannot exist without the other.”

“Words can lie. See beyond them.”

(Victoria Aveyard is a wordsmith. What she lacks in character and book depth she makes up for in language and description.)

Overall Rating: 3.75/5

I know I bashed the book a lot, but it was a pretty easy and cute read. I am going to read the sequel because I am very invested in Maven as character and would like to see what else Aveyard has in store. She took ideas from dystopian novels which were all familiar with and put her own unique twist on them, and I admire that.

Thank you for reading this week’s blog post. Next Sunday I will be discussing, “The Half of It.” Please like, follow, and reblog my posts to help get me out there. Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

[ladyautie]

get to know me more!

@funyasm​ tagged me and I’m bored after writing my chapter, so here it is!

✨ what do you prefer to be called name wise?

My name’s Sophie. My friends call me Spencou or Spence. We met on a Role-Playing game forum where I played a character named Spencer. We’re used to call each other by our characters’ names and nicknames, most of the time. My brother calls me Sis’.

✨ when is your birthday?

15th november 1993.

✨ where do you live?

Paris, France.

✨ three things you are doing right now?

I’m watching an episode of AT4W on youtube, scrolling on Tumblr and I’m drinking a coffee.

✨ four fandoms that have piqued your interest right now?

Definitely It and especially Eddie Kaspbrak and the ship Reddie. I’m kinda obsessed right now, writing fanfic, reading fanfic, daydreaming about it and all.

I just played the Last of Us 2 and I’m currently watching a let’s play from my favorite youtubers, Mari and Stacy from Geek Remix. I’ll probably read a few fics as well.

The tv show Barry (HBO) is a definite special interest for me. I’m probably going to watch it all once again real soon and I’m planning on writing a fanfic or two in the future. I’m dying for the third season to come.

Finally, I’m probably going to be super into The Umbrella Academy once again, when the second season will be released. I’m just really into Vanya, Klaus and Allison and I can’t wait to see more of them.

✨ how is the pandemic treating you?

None of the people I know have been contaminated, so I’m lucky about that. I’m not quarantined anymore, back to work, and the transition is not easy. 

I feel like I’m more openly autistic than I used to be and that I can’t stand the rest of the world for a long period of time. I’ve experienced multiple meltdowns and shutdowns and I have real difficulties to socialize with most people or to focus on my work.

I feel incredibly naked and vulnerable whenever I’m leaving my flat without my mask on, so I think that’s definitely something I’m gonna have to work on in the future.

Leaving Paris and meeting my folks for my mother’s wedding, I found myself surrounded by people who mostly didn’t care about the virus, kissing each other on the cheek in true french fashion to say hello, hugging, not wearing a mask, not respecting any kind of social distance. 

I was quickly overwhelmed by all of that, plus the noise, and I had to isolate myself in my parents’ car, sobbing hysterically and willing to suffer in a overheated car if it meant having a bit of peace.

There are definitely going to be long-term consequences. I can only hope that my physical health will remain okay, though.

✨ song you can’t stop listening right now?

Keep On by Sasha Sloan. I just really love the lyrics and the message.

✨ recommend a movie.

Whenever I have to think of a movie to recommend, Frank by Lenny Abrahamson is the first one that comes to my mind. This movie is an obsession for me since the first time I watched it and I often find myself watching it again and again. Despite its heavy subjects, it’s definitely a comfort movie for me.

Too often, movies featuring mentally ill characters will aim for the characters to “get better”, which doesn’t mean for them to find healthy ways to cope with their issues, but usually for them to look more “neurotypical-like”, if you know what I mean. Frank  doesn’t go that way at all. On the contrary, it pushes the viewer to empathize with the main characters and to understand their point of view, their way of being.

It’s so incredibly comforting to watch a movie featuring mental illness realistic and not romanticized and to have the movie say “you’re different and you have issues, but you’ll find your tribe someday and be able to find your own happiness, even if it’s unconventional by society’s standards”.

I don’t know, I just have so much feelings about this movie. Plus the music slaps, the humor is hilarious (kudos to the random French guy who can perfectly understand English but refuses to utter a single word if it’s not in French) and the actors are truly on point (I can only salute Domnhall Gleeson, among everyone else who is also worthy of praise, because he definitely managed to make me hate his character in a way I almost never hated a character before).

Watch it!

✨ how old are you?

I’m 26 years old.

✨ school, university, occupation, other?

I used to be a librarian, but I couldn’t find a stable job in this field, so I passed an entrance examination and I’m now working in the tax administration. Yeah, not really glamorous, but it pays the bills and I’m accommodated for my disability, so it helps. 

✨ do you prefer hot or cold?

Definitely cold. When I was a kid, I used to swim in mountain lakes, at temperatures close to 13° celsius, and I still take my showers mostly cold. I can’t stand heat, I get headaches very easily when it’s sunny and I’m getting confused easily whenever it’s too hot. I recently had a nosebleed at work so intense that I found myself spitting blood (it went better once I got a fan, making the temperature bearable).

✨ name one fact others may not know about you.

I used to be allergic to my own sweat when I was around 18, until my early twenties. Whenever I was doing a mild physical effort or getting stressed out, I would get hives and itchy skin rash all over my whole freaking body, which was so exhausting that I would fall asleep immediately as soon as the rash was gone. 

It disappeared as suddenly as it appeared, without me ever doing something about it. I still don’t know why I experienced that and if I’m going to experience that ever again. I hope not.

✨ are you shy?

My autism makes social interactions complicated, but I’d say I’m mostly impaired by my social anxiety and the various traumas I’m dealing with daily.

Traumas I got after having been bullied pretty badly by kids and teachers during my school years, my stepfather being borderline abusive and different traumatic experiences, including my childhood crush dying from a ski accident when I was 15 or so (and me never being able to tell him that I loved him) and people betraying me so many times that I can’t even recall every little thing.

As a result, I find myself doubting constantly that I’m worthy of love, affection and respect and I often wonder when I’ll do or say the “wrong” thing that will cause me to lose everyone I care about. I also have a hard time knowing who I am and, as a result, allowing everyone to know who I am as well. 

I often don’t know what to say and will find myself keeping my mouth shut, even on topics I’m knowledgeable about, because I’m scared of people shutting me down, among other things. My friends make it easier for me to talk about things I like and all, but I’m still heavily doubting myself.

I try to challenge myself regularly. I’ll force myself to take part in events that are taxing or that are forcing me to perform in front of people. That’s how I found myself taking part in the casting part of the french equivalent of “American Idol” (I merely met the pre-judges, but I did manage to sing my whole song in front of them). I needed to prove to myself that I could do it.

✨ do you have any preferred pronouns?

I’m using she/her, but I don’t mind people using they/them to talk about me if they don’t want to be gender-specific.

✨ any pet peeves?

I hate how people can freely and openly be homophobic, racist, ableist, transphobic, sexist and so on, but as soon as I open my mouth to let them know that what they said/did wasn’t appropriate, I’m labelled as one of those “hysterical feminists” or a “party pooper”. s/ Sorry if your antisemitic joke isn’t making me laugh, my “dear” colleague... /s I hate whenever people infantilize me, especially my mom. She’s still keeping an eye on my bank account, despite me telling her that I didn’t want her to do so again and again. I don’t dare to block her out, because I’m scared of her emotional reaction.  I hate the ugliest parts of fandom, notably the obsession with “who’s topping / who’s bottoming” whenever there’s a gay pairing or the racism / ableism / transphobia / homophobia I’ve witnessed again and again.

I don’t dare to engage in the Last of Us 2 fandom because of that and the way some people describe the character of Abby (a very muscular woman), focusing on her physical appearance and calling her awful names (being downright transphobic when they thought that she was the transgender character that Naughty Dog announced there would be in their game). 

✨ what’s your favorite “dere” type?

I had to google it, because aside from Yandere and Tsundere, I didn’t know a thing about it. I guess you could say I’m a Dandere (someone who is quiet and asocial. They are afraid to talk, fearing that what they say will get them in trouble.). 

My favorite type is Kuudere though, when it comes to anime in particular (someone who is calm and collected on the outside, and never panics. They show little emotion, and in extreme cases are completely emotionless, but may be hiding their true emotions. They tend to be leaders who are always in charge of a situation.). 

My favorite anime character, Kiyotaka Ayanokōji from the anime Classroom of the elite, is the most extreme case I can think about. He’s completely expressionless for most of the anime, talks with a very dull voice and it’s impossible to know what he’s thinking about at all times or what’s his overall plan. His hidden depth makes him all the more fascinating. He managed to keep me interested in a mostly meh anime.

✨ rate your life 1-10. 1 being really crappy and 10 being the best you could ever be.

It’s a bit hard, but somewhere around 5 or 6? I went through tons of crap in my life but I’m still here and able to live on my own, even if my quality of life isn’t all that good. I live with nearly daily suicidal thoughts since I was a teenager and have to compose with my meltdowns and anxiety attacks as well. I feel “other” most of the time and I can’t relate to most people I’m meeting and interacting with, which can sometimes feel very lonely.

On the other hand, I have wonderful friends who are willing to put up with my trauma crap and are overall amazing to talk to and be around. I have a cat I love dearly. They’re the reason why I’m still alive to this day, giving me a reason to say fuck off to my suicidal thoughts. 

✨ what’s your main blog?

My main blog is Ladyautie and is about autism. I have another blog, reddie-4-more, focusing on the It movies and Eddie Kaspbrak and Richie Tozier.

✨ is there anything you think people need to know about you before becoming friends with you?

So, uh, don’t be weirded out by the kind of things I can tell you about my past. Even if it seems a lot, all of it is definitely true. 

For example, I was almost kidnapped when I was around 8 or 9 by a random guy, while I was camping with my father. 

My father and my paternal grandmother actually kidnapped me and my brother when I was around two and I stayed with him until the social workers determined that my mother had to raise us again because our well-being and overall life were threatened. 

Lots of events of my life seem far-fetched or out of a movie / a book or something and I had people telling me that I must be lying or that I’m over-exaggerating, something that always hurts deeply.

I’m terribly awkward and more or less openly autistic, so you’re definitely going to notice something different about me. I can’t change for you and I’m not willing to hide my traits only to make you feel more comfortable about frequenting me, so if you can’t handle my socially anxious and disabled ass, then just leave.

I need people to actually tell me what they think or feel. I’m very “first degree” and I’m pretty bad at guessing what people are thinking about. Don’t be afraid to be frank.

Finally, never, and I mean never, infantilize me. I’m a 26 years old woman. I’m not a kid.I’m fine with my friends offering to help or making sure that I’m okay or so, but never assume that I don’t understand something and don’t force your help on me if I say that I’m okay.

That’s it, those who want to take part in this exercise, don’t hesitate!

[hamliet]

BSD chat anon:

I said Reylo fans who tend to be white women,” NOT “all of whom.” I know Reylo fans of color exist. They are NOT the issue. I’m talking about the power imbalance between white people and POC in fandom (and spaces outside of it). I’m talking about racism from white Reylo/Star Wars fans in general. I know I don’t represent all POC. Nobody does. I hate it when white people and POC alike force people into those positions. I have OCD too—I know about the overthinking and anxiety that comes with that kind of position. I am not invalidating the identities and perspectives of people from my own community and other communities of color. Why the Hell would I repeat the same violence done to me and other POC?! I’m talking about how certain statements from a white person can seem like an attack on POC who hold opposing views,especially since we’re conditioned to expect them. For instance, when you said you hate how people “cry abuse” in regard to Reylo, my first thought was, “Are you talking about visibilityofcolor, a relatively well-known black abuse survivor who’s been vocal about her opinion on Reylo being an abusive ship and has been the target of racial harassment in the Star Wars fandom?” As you’ve mentioned once before, it’s impossible to include a million disclaimers in every single post. Plus, it’s impossible to know everyone and their perspectives. That’s the same for me as it is for you. But can’t I bring up things POC with similar sentiments as mine go through without being seen as a threat toward people with different attitudes, let alone my own people? I’m getting riled up now. Let’s end the conversation for now.—BSD Chat Anon                                       

I don’t mean this to sound dismissive, but I truly don’t know what you want from me. Are you saying only POC can like Kylo Ren? Are you saying I have to engage with antis, when most of them would prefer not to engage with shippers and they might, in fact, trigger me and I might trigger them? Are you saying I haven’t read critiques of a Rey-Kylo dynamic and considered them? Because I have. I’m not saying their feelings and experiences are invalid or that they can’t dislike anything, only that I do not share their feelings and bring my own baggage to fiction. I’m genuinely asking all of the above questions as well, because I genuinely am confused. You say you know you can’t make all the disclaimers in a tumblr ask, but you then go on to hold me accountable for not making 5 million disclaimers while giving yourself a pass for talking in very vague terms. I understand that as a white person I may have privilege in being able to assume disclaimers whereas you may not, and I’m sorry, but that still doesn’t address how much time I have/don’t have to add them. That it is this way is wrong, and I try to be mindful, but I don’t know how to fix it. 

Your assertion that you felt I was talking about a specific anti--whom I have never heard of--and that it is a microaggression to not realize that you might be thinking of a specific person--is very confusing. I do my best to be sensitive and to correct things when I am wrong, as I should, but I am not in control of your associations. I am not responsible for your feelings or your thoughts. I can’t say that you aren’t hurt, because I believe you are, but I can say I don’t know what I could do differently in regards to that.

I was not intending to accuse you of dismissing their identities. I am sorry if it seemed that way. I was pointing out how there are a variety of viewpoints even from overlapping identities, which your statement of how most antis are POC (when this is not my experience) implied otherwise to me. I am sorry if this was wrong.

You insist that I erred by...listening to multiple POC voices and making my own decisions about my preferences for the story as I saw consistent with the themes and spirit thereof, and my opinions ended up just not happening to align with yours? I’m not sure this is your point, but if it isn’t, I don’t understand what your point is. I don’t understand how that is a microaggression, or how I am not allowed to say what most of my experiences with antis have been--because I am always writing from my own experience. Again, I realize I use general terms a lot, which I have been and will continue to be working on (a good reminder), but return to paragraph one and how we are limited in space for disclaimers.

I do read differing opinions, and follow many people who dislike Kylo and/or Reylo, including dear friends; they just might not be the exact same ones you follow. I also don’t owe you my rationale about everything. I’m not always interested in revisiting arguments I’ve dealt with from years and years ago.

As far as power positions in fandom go: yes, this is a major issue. I support discussion on this, but don’t believe I should be leading it. As far as Reylo goes, there are quite a few Reylos of color who speak out quite often, and have called other Reylos out on their anti-Blackness before. I’m happy to reblog voices of those who are leading discussions about fandom power dynamics and race, and have been more active on Twitter with this. 

However, I won’t reblog from antis, as I consider them morally in the wrong because they are focused on hurting others rather than critiquing the story (I don’t think rabid stans of anything are much better than antis). Also, for the record: not every person who dislikes something and posts about a dislike is an anti; people become antis when harassing and bullying others/make their fictional taste moral imperatives. Trust me, I’ve posted a great deal of critique and am fine with critique. I’m just not cool with rape threats or accusations of supporting abuse, because those are very serious, and I believe should never be trivialized. I also believe most antis are posting from hurt and a strong desire to have people validate their pain--whatever it is based in. But I don’t think lashing out at others is okay, ever. 

In the months leading up to the film, you sent me well over half a dozen asks that were all essentially begging me to convince you that you had to like Kylo, which I refused to do. I told you why I liked him but pointed out that dislike was completely valid and personal taste didn’t in any way take away from anything about you. I eventually stopped answering you because you would not accept an answer in which I essentially told you to make up your own mind. I do not understand why you are now accusing me of not considering others’ perspectives--over nine months since I last posted about Star Wars. Your list of microaggressions has thus far has only been me liking Kylo Ren as a character--and he isn’t even my favorite; Finn is. Maybe we got sidetracked, but it seems to be more about taste than about actual microaggressions, which would have been better to keep the conversation to. You seem to be assuming I’m making moral judgments based on taste, but I’m not intending to; if I’ve conveyed otherwise, I’m sorry, but again--time is not an unlimited resource. 

Not related to the current topic, but: you have sent me upwards of twenty asks in a single night. You have pressed topics I am not comfortable talking about. You have done it all on anonymous, wanting enough credit to use a signatory name, but not enough to take any responsibility. You said all you wanted was a discussion, but that’s not what this has been. I understand again there are things that might make you not feel safe to do that, but I no longer feel safe to have these conversations with you (though I will continue to have them with others), as you have violated my boundaries too many times and I’m not convinced you’re acting in good faith. I have blocked you. 

Attacks on Anon are still not allowed. Also, I am open to receiving critiques on microaggressions, because I am 100% sure I make them and I would like to do better. I’m just posting this because I process my thoughts through writing far better than through speaking, and because we did have a communication for about a year. 

[fairyroses]

ok but going about the logic of comics history isn't it brainy and dreamer a thing in the comics too? like i get that some people have different preference for ships and that's ok what i don't get is why you guys are always saying that if brainy and nia get together he is gonna mess up the timeline but dating kara it is okay isn't that double standard? I mean brainy soon or later have to go back home how do you see that play out if he dating anyone?(And sorry if i sound snappy )

It’s okay anon, I don’t think you’re being snappy. And I’m sorry if I sound frustrated at all, I promise I’m not frustrated with you. I’m actually just frustrated with the show’s apparent refusal to make these really important things clear to people who aren’t familiar with the comics. 

(Though I have to be honest, I don’t actually read comics myself (yet). I just have a lot of friends who do. Most of the things I know about this stuff comes from @kara-querl​, but I’ll do the best I can to explain the basics and hopefully clear up some of the confusing stuff for you. Again, it’s not your fault that you don’t know these things - it’s the show’s fault for not explaining them.) 

Now, as for Brainy/“Dreamer” being a thing in the comics… you’re sort of right, but not in the way you’re probably thinking. 

There is one version of Brainy (from a comics run called the Threeboot) who ends up with Nura Nal, aka Dream Girl. I’d highly recommend reading this summary of their story on twitter (just prepare yourself, because it’s a looong thread, and also, uh, the story is probably not what you’d expect it to be… especially towards the end). 

However, Nura Nal is not Nia Nal. They’re two completely different characters, and both of them very much exist in the CW show’s universe. A lot of people watching SG don’t seem to know about this distinction (because the show has not outright explained it yet), so when they hear that Brainy had a relationship with “Dream Girl” in the comics, they assume (like you did) that Brainy/Nia is a comics canon couple like Kara/Brainy is. But that’s not actually true. 

Nura is also the reason why so many people are worried about Brainy/Nia messing up the timeline. But more on that later.

For future reference, this is Nura (with a bonus Brainy in the background):

She’s not really anything like Nia, in either personality, looks, or her dynamic with Brainy. They have basically the same powers (though Nura could never shoot “dream energy” out of her hands), and the writers seem to have borrowed aspects of Nura’s relationship with her sister Mysa for Nia and Maeve’s storyline, but that’s pretty much where their similarities end. 

(The rest of this is gonna go under a cut, because it’s a LOT of information. I know you didn’t ask for a meta, anon, but that’s just kinda what happened, sorry. Hopefully it’s not too overwhelming.)

Nura is a descendant of Nia, the character that we have on the show. She lives in the 31st century and is a member of the Legion of Superheroes, just like Brainy. The fact that Nia is Nura’s great-great-etc-grandmother has been confirmed in multiple interviews. Here’s a quote from Queller (one of the show’s EPs) from SDCC, before the season even started airing:

Hints about Nura were dropped in the show as early as 4.02 (which was probably close to being filmed around the time of SDCC). In that episode, Brainy asked Nia if he already knew her because she “looked familiar”, and then there was that look of recognition on his face when she told him her name���

Then in 4.08, when Alex asked Brainy if he knew about Nia Nal in the 31st century, his only reaction is this:

Because it’s not Nia that he knows, it’s Nura. But he didn’t want to reveal too much about the future by saying that. 

However, Brainy isn’t perfect, and eventually he slipped up. He accidentally called Nia “Nura” later on in the episode, showing how closely he associates them in his mind.

This is the moment in which Nura’s existence was officially made canon on the show. 

There’s also the moment towards the end of 4.08 where Brainy told Nia that she “contains greatness,” but he couldn’t tell her how he knew that. This isn’t directly a reference to Nura, but it stands to reason that Nura is the “how” answer to how he knows this about Nia/her family.

Nura is also presumably the person that Nia and Brainy were arguing over in 4.13, whom he refused to talk about. (Tbh, I think the fact that the show apparently skipped over Nia first learning about her descendant is a grave oversight, because for non-comics fans it probably appeared to come out of nowhere.) 

So, just to be completely clear: Nia has never been Brainy’s love interest in the comics (in fact, she doesn’t even exist in the comics at all - she’s an original character created for the show), and Nura, Brainy’s actual love interest (again, specifically only from the Threeboot comics run) definitely 100% exists in the CW show’s universe. We know this because there have been multiple references to her on the show throughout the entire season. 

Based on the fact that Brainy is so familiar with how Nia’s powers work and how to train her, it stands to reason that he and Nura are rather… close. We just don’t know how close yet, because Brainy refuses to say anything about her to either Nia or us, the audience. At the very least, they’re teammates and friends. At most… well, they were engaged in the Threeboot, so…

So, to get back to your original question about shipping: From what I’ve seen, the fact that Brainy and Nura had a romance in the comics is actually a big reason why a lot of comics fans don’t ship Brainy/Nia. I can’t speak for everyone obviously, but I know that for quite a few people, the idea of Brainy dating Nia basically feels like him dating his girlfriend’s great-grandma (especially since Brainy’s references to Nura have made people wonder if they might actually have a romantic history on the show, too). It’s not quite on the same level as Marty McFly’s mother trying to kiss her own son in the first Back to the Future movie, but it’s still just… kinda squicky in a smiliar way, you know?

Nura’s existence is also what people are typically referring to when we talk about Brainy/Nia disrupting the timeline. If Brainy were to get with Nia, then that would essentially erase Nura from existence. We know that Nia’s timeline would get seriously messed up if she got together with Brainy, because she has a traceable lineage of descendants going at least 1,000 years into the future. If Brainy got in the middle of that, if he changed Nia’s destiny by allowing her to fall in love with him, then that whole timeline - Nia’s entire legacy, which Brainy is clearly familiar with - would be drastically altered. 

What kind of person would Brainy be if he agreed to date Nia, knowing that doing so would erase Nura (and her sister Mysa, and anyone else related to them) in the 31st century? Knowingly and willfully wiping out an entire lineage, including someone that he personally knows and cares about? Does that really sound like something Brainy would do?

This is probably the biggest reason why Brainy/Nia just doesn’t work for a lot of us, particularly comics fans who have caught all the Nura references so far this season. It’s not about personal ship preferences - it’s about character consistency, specifically Brainy’s. We don’t want him to get with Nia because doing so feels wildly selfish and out of character for him. 

(In fact, Brainy interacting as much as he already has with Nia personally stresses me out, because by pushing her to be a superhero and training her himself, he’s already altered her timeline in some unknowable way. We just have to hope he knows how far he can push it.)

We’ve already seen Brainy caution Nia about them potentially creating a paradox, and it seems like they’ve had a similar argument to this one at least once before off-screen. He must know what the dangers of doing something as serious as getting romantically involved with her would be, because he listed them all off to Alex and Kara in 4.08:

His Keanu Reeves movie quote excuse in the most recent episode (4.15) was flimsy at best, but when he says that he and Nia can never be together, his tone of voice noticeably changes to become more serious, making it obvious that he means it. 

With all of that stuff in mind now… do you see why so many of us are confused and even upset by the promise of more “will they/won’t they” for Brainy/Nia? 

Why would the showrunners make Nura’s existence canon if they’re not going to even touch on the issue of how Brainy and Nia getting together would obviously erase her? It’s almost like the Brainy/Nia thing has to conclude with them not ending up together, because otherwise, what does that say about Nura, and the future that Brainy knows? It would change a lot - Nura, who has existed in the comics since 1964, would be GONE - and given how much Brainy has been shown to care about the future and the timeline, I just can’t see him going along with that. I just can’t. (And neither can a lot of other people.)

But of course, this is Supergirl we’re talking about here, so I don’t have a ton of faith in the EPs or writers. They could very well just ignore all that stuff and shove Brainy and Nia together anyway. So, this isn’t me saying that Brainy and Nia will definitely not get together. After all, I don’t write the show. 

This is just me explaining why a lot of people don’t think that this Brainy/Nia storyline makes sense, given the show’s own references to Nura, as well as their establishment of Brainy as a character who cares deeply about the timeline. Brainy dating Nia would directly contradict both of those previous writing choices. 

And why would the writers do that? Why would they directly contradict their own setup? Fans who are familiar with Nura and have picked up on all these clues are just frustrated because we don’t understand this. 

TLDR: Brainy/Nia is not comics canon. Nia Nal is the ancestor of Nura Nal, Brainy’s actual love interest from the comics, who also exists within the show and lives in the 31st century. And Brainy/Nia getting together would erase Nura, and thus mess up the timeline. 

Okay, that was a lot. Hopefully that cleared some things up for you about both the comic history, as well as the whole Brainy/Nia timeline issue. I’m gonna address the rest of your questions more briefly bc I’m tired now lol. 

Why won’t Brainy getting with Kara mess up the timeline like it would with Nia?

The simplest answer to this one is that we don’t know what the future is supposed to hold for Kara. The Legion made a point of saying last season that their knowledge of the events of Supergirl’s future are vague and largely unknown. We don’t know anything about her having any descendants, or a specific legacy that needs to remain intact like Nia clearly has. (If they didn’t want to create this problem for Nia, then they didn’t have to establish those things for her either… but they did.) 

What about Brainy going back to the future eventually?

I kind of already talked about this whole thing here, so you can just read that post to see my take on it. The bottom line is, I don’t think that’s the biggest issue here, largely for BTS/casting reasons. Basically, I think it’s very unlikely that Brainy is going to go back to the future anytime soon. And because of that, I don’t think it’s really necessary to bring it up as an argument against either Brainy/Nia or Brainy/Kara. 

And finally, with regards to the whole “why do people keep saying that Kara/Brainy is THE comics canon ship when other ships like Brainy/Dream Girl also exist in the comics?” thing, which is kinda the whole point of your ask from what I can tell, I recommend that you check out this post and these tweets, which (briefly) outline all the different versions of Kara and Brainy that have existed in various media over the past 60 years, and how many of them have ended up with each other. (Spoiler Alert: There’s a very good reason why most comics fans are also Karadox shippers.)

So, in conclusion, can people ship Brainy/Nia if they want to? Of course. People can ship whatever they want. I ship Brainy and Winn after all, even though that’s not ever going to be canon, because I like their dynamic and shipping is supposed to be fun. If people want to create fanart or fics or whatever for Brainy/Nia, then they can totally do that. My issues aren’t with what ships people personally prefer. My issues are with what the actual show is doing in canon, especially within the context of the entire Supergirl mythos. 

Look at it this way: If the show doesn’t have Kara eventually fall for Brainy, then CW Kara will be the only version of Kara who had a version of Brainy in her story, and did not fall in love with him. 

Like, wow. Talk about going against history.

[it-will-not-last-the-night]

Blegh

In terms of Persona 5 I’d been riding high mostly since P5D. I’d been positive mostly over it because P5D and fan-generated content had been lovely overall and really engaging and enjoyable. It had helped me forget that the main game itself seriously does upset me at times and I have a less than ideal opinion of it.

*Sigh*

Now I’m starting to feel like that again. Both announcements of today have left brought back to mind some of my biggest problems with Persona 5 and the way Atlus writes in general. What are they? A bit of a lesson then in me;

For myself there are three events in Persona 5 that I really REALLY just consider outright despicable. In no order they are; 1) Two homosexual adult males being negatively stereotyped as child molesters targeting Ryuji 2) Ryuji’s friends responding to one of the greatest acts of selflessness in the entire story by physically abusing Ryuji and 3) The Valentine’s Day event making Canon that Akira/Ren is horrible, Sojiro is horrible and that Atlus thinks all the girls are vapid idiots. 

‘Magical Valentine’ raises an issue I’ve always had but makes it even more forceful. You see in the game the Valentine’s Event is only ‘optionally’ canon. You can play a canonical run-through and not have it occur. So you can, legitimately, without needing headcanon or fanon, just have your own canon playthrough in which the girls are not vapid idiots. The anime however, now, makes it that, for the Animation, it is canon that Akira/Ren is an awful person and that the girls are vapid idiots. Oh and that Sojiro is just literally the worst like...like he is scum in this event. As bas as Akira/Ren is (and he’s bad in this version!) the bigger problem I think a LOT of people forget about the Valentine’s Harem Route is that it literally casts Sojiro as a Guardian of Futaba who would lie to conceal her boyfriend’s infidelities...even when said infidelities LITERALLY CAUSE FUTABA TO CRY! 

So the animation is now making it canon that; 1) Akira/Ren sees no reason he has to be honest or forthright with any females in his life 2) Sojiro holds such low regard for his daughter he will aide Akira/Ren in an ongoing deception and emotional manipulation of her RIGHT AFTER SHE OVERCAME A SUICIDAL PHASE OF HER LIFE and 3) That Ann, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Takemi, Kawakami, Ohya, Hifumi and Chihaya all fall in love with the exact same person and are literally when confronted with incontervertible evidence of his infedilities not only tricked into instantly accepting that them all bringing him chocolate on Valentine’s Day was a ‘misunderstanding’ but, in the case of the Phantom Thieves members, this has so little impact on them that mere days later they have no reaction.

AKA the ending Valentine’s Harem Route basically says: “Akira/Ren successfully cheated on all the girls in his life, and is free to continue to do so since they are so stupid that they could be convinced to assume it was a ‘misunderstanding’ even under the most blatantly false of pretext,” the ending basically gives carte blanche to say that Akira/Ren will probably keep cheating on the women in his life because, well, they’re so stupid that even if they all end up right in front of him, confessing their love for him to each other’s faces...they somehow think this was a ‘misunderstanding’?

That’s gonna be canon now for the animation. Not ‘optional’ canon, just...just outright canon. Literally everything in the Canon is soured now. Did you like Ren’s bond with Ann in the foregoing episodes? Well bad news; Ren literally is willing to commit to an intimate relationship with her and then emotionally cheat on her with several different women at once. Did you like how Ren played a pivotal role in building Futaba’s character and helping her grow out of her emotional turmoil? Well sucks for you cause Ren is literally willing to lie to this girl’s face and tell her he loves her whilst carrying on behind her back with numerous other women.

It sort of goes without saying that this kinda wrecks P5A completely since, canonically, Akira/Ren is now just an irredeemable asshole and the female characters are reduced to stock harem-style idiot love interests with basically 0 individuality because everyone has to love the Protagonist (self-insert!).

But when you think about it even in the original game...this was a problem. Sure you could choose not to do it...but you could also choose to do it. This means, technically, as far as Atlus’ writing is concerned, canonically Akira/Ren has it in him to be a complete asshole with no respect for women or his friends...and the females in the game are all vapid idiots. That’s technically canon since that’s required for the Valentine’s Route to work.

Oh, also, that Sojiro is the worst. The worst.

The Valentine’s Harem Event, like the Ryuji abusing event post Shido’s Palace. does irrevocable damage to the characters and the content itself, kinda ruining it since for it to be canon...well it means the characters are terrible people or stupid. Why I sort of have to choose to ignore them to actually like the story.

Of course what does all this writing have in common? It’s a JOKE! Haha! Ryuji’s being abused, isn’t this funny? Haha! The girls are all vapid idiots and Joker’s such a chick magnet they have no varying tastes in partner at all! Haha! Gay men want to force Ryuji to undress for them! 

Isn’t this funny? I mean, no, of course not. In almost all these cases the ‘humour’ is...someone suffering. A common retort I then see is; it’s not canon, its just for a joke.

But the problem is it is, all, strictly canon. I could definitely understand if these things were packaged as clear ‘not canon’ events. 

Here’s an example; the Blazblue game series has ‘joke’ endings which are explicitly not canon but usually feature bizarre or ‘funny’ scenes. One of said scenes is a reoccuring bit in which the protagonist Ragna is made to wear glasses that causes the female cast to all fall in love with him. Putting aside the fact for the moment that, to me, this still isn’t funny since its treating the Mind Rape of the entire female cast as a ‘joke’ the fact remains that it is, however, not canon. The creators make sure that nothing that happens here technically infringes on or diminished the canon character content by making it explicitly non-canon.

Persona 5, both the game and now the Animation, take no such efforts. There are no efforts to make clear that Ryuji being beaten up is a ‘comedic non-canon overreaction’ or that Akira/Ren being a womanizing prick and Sojiro being the WORST are just ‘comedic non-canon skits’ all these are played as explicitly, irrefutably, canon. That is how the characters are, as far as Atlus is concerned. That is their opinions, their beliefs etc.

Is it weird that P5 Dancing has the best, most wholesome, most healthy characterization of the entire Persona 5 Franchise? I suppose maybe the mangas are good to, I must admit I’ve never read any of them since from what I can tell Ryuji is basically ignored in all of them in favour of focus on the girls.

Atlus has a writing problem and that problem is centered I fear on a simple fact; the protagonist is a self-insert who is assumed to be a self-insert for a very specific formula; a young male who sees female characters as things he wishes to collect for himself and wants to feel adored by. Almost all of the major writing problems stem from this; Girls seem exploited or turned into vapid haremettes? Well, obviously, gotta appeal to that ‘chick magnet’ fantasy. Homosexuality is cast as negative or frightning? Well, obviously, the fantasy being appealed to is explicitly heterosexual in nature, everything else is ‘icky’. Other males seem to constantly be the butt of a joke or consistently shown up compared to the protagonist? Naturally since the fantasy is about making the player feel like ‘the man’ and all other men are simply lame by comparison so that the girls will only love the protagonist (the self-insert).

What really bums me out about all of this is that Atlus can write such amazing scenes as Ryuji’s ‘the place I belong is next to you,’ but then in that same game or anime have the Valentine’s Event and the Ship scene. I imagine in part this is due to it being a game first, story second, so they feel there are ‘beats’ that need to be there (the loser must be made fun of, the protagonist must get all the girls) even if, from a storyboarding point of view...it just makes the characters look A) Very inconsistent in personality and attitude (Ren’s infamous standing up for a stranger being assaulted but then instantly refusing to step in to help Ryuji in Shinjuku) or B) Like massive asshats (The entire Valentine’s Event from Ren and Sojiro’s perspectives.

It is just...its sad. I want to like this story because there is legitimately good characters and writing but...in the name of appealing to the lowest common denominator it gets weighted down by stuff which is explicitly canon and makes the characters awful. 

It really makes it tough to like it at times.

*Sigh*

At the end of the day I don’t know how to handle this. Accepting its canon makes a lot of people awful or stupid. Headcanoning it away is fine but...then I gotta accept I don’t like Persona 5 per say, I like what I, or other fans, create from Persona 5.

Also can we please just be able to date Ryuji. Please Atlus. We don’t need another female character to be another fangirl for Joker, to be another vapid idiot who can be duped by the WORST Sojiro, please Atlus, please. Please. There are ENOUGH love interests Atlus, please try perhaps instead stop treating women like little toys for a protagonist to effortlessly collect and dupe. 

Watching all the Persona 5 Girls (sans Sae) in the Valentine’s Event is painful. They are characters I like, many of them have good writing...and then they are reduced to props to make a player feel “Oh yeah! Such a chick magnet! They all want me! Women are simply a commodity by which I inflate my own sense of self-worth since having multiple of them attracted to me and betrayed by me makes me feel as if this is a positive development and not a negative one!”

And I do mean that seriously. Look at most content or statements around the Valentine’s Event. They frame it positively. The ‘harem’ ending, Joker is such a ‘chick magnet’ and so ‘alpha’ etc. etc. 

Terrible emotional betrayal? Deep seated trust issues? Sojiro treating his own daughter like garbage? Ignored because ‘Joker is a PLAYER! WOOO!” And this is overall seen as a positive development. 

By now I’ve rambled on ridiculously long but if I must have a conclusion it is thus; Please give us a Female Protagonist who can date the other boys and stop selling this sexist approach where non-protagonist males and all females serve the same purpose; inflating the ego of the player character. 

[bellamygateoldblog]

Blog Summary Tag Game

Find your fandom kru and help them find you. Answer the following and include the tag #the100blog in your answer, then tag some of the blogs you follow.

created by @johnmurphysreddit tagged by @blodreina-noumou !

1. What are your primary topics?

My blog is pretty much divided 70/30 between t100 & skam italia (i do tend to follow more t100 blogs!) Sometimes there’s the odd post of other shows I watch/have watched.

Most of my posts are spacekru, but i reblog lots of pretty gifs/edits of anything from the show because they are beautiful and creators put lots of work into them! I’ll probably also be posting about Octavia, too, throughout s6 because i’m particularly interested in her arc.

I’m not the most eloquent writer, but i do write & reblog a fair amount of meta, some of which are very lengthy, and i understand it could be frustrating if this doesn’t interest you, so I always try to tag them as “#meta<3″ so you can filter them if you wish. (note: my blog is disorganised atm, i’m still pretty new & only just getting the hang of it lol but my newer posts are tagged properly).

2. What tags should a visitor check?

#meta<3 is where i store meta about the show, it isn’t necessarily all my own, but i do comment on quite a bit!

#anti clarke griffin is where all of my Clarke posts go, even ones that I don’t necessarily class as negative, because i think my general feelings about her character give off a negative impression regardless.

I tag with full names (e.g, #bellamy blake) and i do this with any other show besides t100 that i spontaneously reblog, too (such as #deadly class).

3. What do you love about The 100?

I love the dynamics between a lot of the characters, and i tend to focus on them a lot! There are plenty of instances where there are personality clashes, and where they’re forced to challenge one another. The dynamics also give pretty good indications of who are best suited as units or teams, and who can be percieved as being outliers to the rest.

I like that pretty much every character is presented as grey, it makes it more enjoyable to analyse them, their motivations, and their strengths and weaknesses. It’s possible to view a scene from multiple different perspectives and understand where each of the characters stand during that point in time, even when we don’t necessarily agree with them. I love the redemption arcs of both Bellamy and Murphy, I was always taken with their journey’s of seeking atonement, reflecting on their morals and place in the world, and growing as people as a direct result of their actions and the consiquences of them.

I like to be surprised; I can be a fan of major character death if it’s executed properly (no pun intended), and if this end point is consistent with the rest of their arc. I like when the trajectory of a character’s story changes suddenly, such as when Murphy went along with Jaha to the city of light, and then later regrouped with the rest of the mains, but as a member, rather than an outsider. Another example of this, just to be clearer, was Luna’s refusal to take the flame despite all the suspence and mystery surrounding her character, and i like that they didn’t result to compromising who she was in order to drive the plot!

I’m drawn to post-apocalypse/dystopian future style shows and movies for the new and exciting challenges they pose compared to the here-and-now. These types of shows are a great way of exploring ideas that wouldn’t otherwise be appropriate, such as corrupted morals, the difficulty of survival, and taking extreme measures in the face of danger. LOVE fight scenes, especially involving combat weapons, and the thrill the comes with them; they’re much more entertaining than guns.

I love some superficial drama in the midst of all the chaos, usually relationship and friendship conflicts. I feel it just brings so many more layers to the narrative, and makes the world it exists in seem bigger and deeper, while also serving to make the show more engaging by giving us something we can relate to better, no matter how silly it seems within the context of the show. This way, it doesn’t feel too plot-orientated and gives the viewer a breather from the darker aspects of the show. I think t100 did this better in the earlier seasons, especially with Octavia and Bellamy, as the dynamic conflicts that came later on all seem to be plot-related in one way or another.

I love the whole idea of finding your place in a world that works hard to suppress you.

My favourite characters are spacekru + Octavia & Diyoza (both bad bitches which i truely cannot resist). Deceased favourites: Luna, Jasper + Finn (I like the peaceful damaged ones okay)

I don’t focus too much on ships, but i have a strong preference for Becho!

4. What do you hate/what frustrates you about The 100?

Hypocrisy and double standards that exist within the narrative, and especially within the fandom. A lot of the time this is concerning Clarke.

The fandom climate in general! explicit and implicit hostility directed towards people who disagree with popular opinion, people unable to distinguish between actor and character, people opting to attack rather than discuss, people viewing the entire show through ‘shipper goggles’ and ignoring key elements of the narrative in favour of creating their own canon (people who ignore and twist past the point of it just being individual interpretation).

The wasted potential of Jasper & Finn as insights into the harmful affects and futility of war, and the puncture it makes on a person’s psyche. As much as these deaths had me shaken to my core, I could never quite get past the blatant killing-off of two of the more explictly mentally ill characters. Rather than a recovery storyline, the only solution to their struggles was death, and i’ve always felt like the writers had so much potential to address PTSD and depression more directly, through them. I think it could’ve made for an interesting storyline, and it would’ve given the writers more personalities, dynamics, and challenges to play with.

The belittlement/mocking of peaceful characters, which in a way expressed that hating violence and war made you weak and not to be taken seriously (Lincoln & Luna specifically, but also s5 Monty and s1 Finn).

Additionally, the lack of world-building. We were only given minor glimpses into the past of some characters, we didn’t get to see details on how the ark evolved, or how the present culture was formed from it’s history. We see the same approach with the grounders; we learn that every clan is different, but then we barely see how they are different. The small appearance of mutated animals and then no future mentions is another confusing point. I know most of this is simply due to time restraints, but there came a point where we didn’t learn any more than was necessary to advance the plot, and it just made the world and conflicts in it seem smaller.

Characters I dislike include Clarke, Kane & Abby (both equally as frustrating and eye-roll inducing).

5. Is this exclusively a The 100 blog?

No, but i usually only use one other main tag (skam italia) which can be filtered!

6. What else should people know?

I love engagement with my posts! You don’t need to be reluctant to add your own thoughts. Conversation is welcome as long as it is kind and respectful!

I usually don’t speak too openly about this, but I have depression, which means I sometimes go M.I.A and sometimes i’m here most of my time to keep myself busy. It varies! so if I fail to reply to anything, it may be because i don’t have the energy to just yet, but it isn’t personal!

I talk a lot in my tags, sometimes commenting on the post when i’m trying to avoid hijacking, and sometimes talking bs and tagging Bellamy “big sexy”

I have a lot of unpopular opinions in this fandom, i’m well aware of it lol but i don’t appreciate hateful anons (which i have had in the past, and they aren’t pleasant!) I prefer to keep anon turned on because some people are just more comfortable interacting that way, and that’s fine! but don’t take it being turned on as an invitation to attack me.

I don’t follow many people, but here are some people who’s blogs I love, who i tag to do this if they want to (though i know this kind of thing isn’t for everyone!)

@bound-by-stardust @fleimkepakosskairipa @awkwardnarwhall93 @fleimkepajohnmurphy @ringabellamy @spacekru-defense @skaiengineers @alrightsnaps @bunker-boyfriends

Sorry if you were already tagged!!

[fandompitfalls]

A Stern Letter to the Committee

Originally posted 5/7/2021

Dear very small, very loud subset of fandom spaces (if you don’t know who those are, chances are it’s probably you),

Stop.

Just stop.  Fandom is for everyone, there has not been nor will there ever be an entrance fee (other than your entire heart and soul) or a magic password to enter a fandom.  There will never be a measuring system to designate If someone is a “true fan” or not.   It didn’t work with the guys who like to give quizzes to see if women are “enough of a fan” and it doesn’t work when we get told we’re just “casuals” instead of fans. As if our heart and soul are dedicated to our fandom. As if we don’t own every single action figure or statue or book or piece of media we can get our hands on to collect.  As if we don’t count pennies to save up to go to a convention to see our favorite person. As if we don’t get excited and rejoice when one of our own gets the opportunity to meet out faves and it’s an exciting thing.

Fandom is an ever growing, ever changing thing and we should embrace that.  It’s a family.  A large nerdy family that nobody else outside our collective understand. The sci-fi geeks might not understand the anime kids, but we accept and embrace them.  The literary nerds might not get the movie geeks, but they can all still get excited when those worlds merge.  The only mundane out there are the people who don’t understand any of it.  No matter who we are; the lost, the lonely, the queer, the misunderstood, the furries, the fangirls, the otakus, the book nerds, the tech geeks. We are all in the same group and it’s unpardonably rude to try to gatekeep inside our community because one small group doesn’t like that another group has a different think space.

For the smaller groups, the shippers, the fans of media that like to think that all media should be custom fit to their size only, damn anyone else who engages with this media.  The elitist attitude of you must get on my train or be left behind.  The gatekeeping of if you don’t ship what I ship, you’re wrong.

Media is not required to cater to us.  Shows are not required to cater to their fans.  It’s nice when it turns out that way, but it’s not required to.  Media is represented by a wide target audience.  The showrunners pitch a show, the networks approve it and it gets made. If it becomes popular, there is still a basic line of general plot to work out.  All the rest is applesauce.  The main idea of a show, a book, any piece of media, is to get from Point A to Point Z, while hitting the 24 other points along the way.  If something can be changed or moved in side points that will enhance the media without usurping the main plot line, it might get added or adjusted.  If it can’t, then it can’t.  No amount of character analysis, meta studies, subtext insistence is going to change that this one specific idea will fit into the linear plot.

It’s not about the showrunner hating their fans or being horrible people or ruining a vision that was not theirs to begin with.  If a piece of media that is being consumed begins to give you heartburn, then stop consuming it.  Find something more palatable to your tastes.  You can’t make chicken into tofu no matter how free range the chicken was.  It won’t work.  You go out and you find the tofu, you don’t go out to people eating chicken and scream about how they aren’t consuming the chicken properly and they don’t understand the subtle nuances that this chicken is actual tofu because when alive, the chickens had soybeans in their feed.  You don’t stand in front of the processing plant and scream about how they hate tofu consumers because they refuse to acknowledge that the chickens they’re processing are actually tofu because some of the processed chicken comes out square so obviously it was meant to be tofu.  You need to go and find the actual tofu processing plant. A place that creates tofu for people who consume it.

Or better yet, make your own tofu.

Granted this allegory went off the rails, but the meaning is clear.  If you don’t like the media, make your own media. Media consumable for small target audiences doesn’t work.  For media to be popular, it must be able to interact with the largest possible target audience from around the world.  Which means that they need to make sure that their product is consumable for everyone, not just a small part.  You don’t own the product.  You cannot dictate how everyone interprets the product.  You can like one thing but if someone else likes the other thing, getting offended and insulted and screaming and targeted harassment and gatekeeping is extremely toxic and immature.  If the idea of someone interpreting media differently from you, up to and including show runners, upsets you that much, as the Gen Alpha kids say, you might need to go outside and touch some grass.

Fandom does not belong to you, it belongs to all of us.  Please stop forcing your religious fervor, your efangelicalism on everyone who doesn’t believe as you do.  You have your church, you have your congregation.  Please stay in your lane.  We all just want to enjoy and get excited about the same things.  We shouldn’t have to hold out enthusiasm for something because there might be a small group of people who get offended that we don’t believe as they do.

Fandom is for everyone.  Let us all enjoy it in our own way.

Sincerely,

The rest of the fandom.

[ghostmartyr]

Obsession and Fandom

2018 being a year of doing better, apparently I’ve decided that being overly honest about fandom and my interactions with it is an A+ idea.

I think most people on the internet these days have no idea what OCD is. Even the people who know enough to understand that it’s a serious problem don’t often examine it past that. Something to do with washing hands and perfectionism, only damaging and crazy.

OCD is built on doubt.

Pick a thing, any thing, that you believe to be true. You turned off the lights. You didn’t run anyone over on your way home. You would never hurt a child. Your God is real. You love your significant other. Your house is not currently on fire. You don’t live on a fault line. Your hands are clean.

Where OCD starts is in the anxiety of uncertainty. In panic loudly suggesting in your own voice, “what if?” You can’t just remember that you turned off the lights. What if you were wrong? Human memories are so fallible. What if your electricity bill spikes and you can’t pay it and you get kicked out and you don’t have enough money left to eat?

Go check.

Twenty times at four in the morning.

Then one more time, to be certain.

Always one more time.

The cycle itself is very simple. Something makes you anxious. You react with compulsions to wave off the anxiety. The compulsions upgrade the importance of whatever made you anxious. The next time the source of anxiety hits, it’s worse, and the compulsions just keep digging into the rut.

Part of what makes that cycle so hard to shake is the obsession aspect.

The general rule of treating OCD is that you need to cut out compulsive behavior. That’s the component that’s keeping everything running. Understandably, this is harder than it sounds.

OCD is a broken coping mechanism. The compulsions put distance between you and the anxiety. Every time you check, and it’s all okay, your brain rewards you with relief sweet enough that you don’t draw the link between that compulsive behavior and the terror that spawned it. The compulsions are how you’re fighting the anxiety, and not fighting means that this great threat will certainly kill you.

Enter the importance of the obsession.

Someone once made a chart about tumblr, and how it treated emotional response. I don’t remember the specifics, and can’t find it, so I’m kind of just hoping I’m not grossly misrepresenting the example, but it was a simple bar chart, illustrating how tumblr did away with a balanced range of highs and lows. Every bar went through the roof.

Obsession is a time-honored way of describing passionate interests. You don’t just like a movie; you’re obsessed with it. It makes your heart beat faster and consumes all your waking thoughts, because that’s just how much it means to you. It is The Thing for you.

In fan circles, this is perfectly normal. We all show up because we love a thing (or hate how we should have loved a thing), and are willing to devote hours and hours of our loves luxuriating in it. This thing, which is just a movie or a comic book or a band, has intense value to us. It matters. Fiction matters to our reality.

What happens with obsession is that you lose the ability to correctly perceive something’s importance. Because whatever it is you’re obsessed with is The Most Important.

Fannish obsessions are, ideally, about enriching your life. They add joy, or some other sense of fulfillment. OCD obsessions impede life. Things that may or may not be inconsequential become so Important that it’s impossible to think that chilling out about them is even advisable.

It matters that you know the lights aren’t on. How could your brain think otherwise? Worse, it’s dangerous to think otherwise. A clear threat to your livelihood is presented in knowing whether the lights are on or not. Are you really going to be so careless as to disregard that?

It matters.

No, you can’t just shut up about this and go about your life, because it matters.

One of the fascinating things about psychological disorders is how quite a few orderly humans have usually brushed against symptoms. Most people don’t have depression. Many people understand feeling depressed. Most people don’t have anxiety. Pretty much everyone has felt anxious.

Plenty of people have superstitions and rituals.

Plenty of people get obsessed with things.

Unfortunately, that can make it hard to communicate the problem. People relate to other people through their own experiences. If you tell them something that sounds like something they’re familiar with, they’re going to assume that it’s that thing they’re familiar with, not something different. Going with depression, since I think that narrative’s the most common to hear nowadays, many people have had terrible days, and felt really broken, and sad, and like the world is ending.

Then a good night’s sleep happened, or the next day, or the next week, and the trauma was over, so it passed, and it was all good.

So don’t let a few bad days get you down! :) :)

It’s well-meaning, but frustrating. Sounding the same does not equal being the same.

I'm trying to be extra careful about that here, because OCD is misunderstood frequently enough without my help. Discussing behaviors I’m more aware of thanks to an anxiety disorder is not the same as saying those behaviors only ever belong to that thing.

Not every rectangle is a square.

So. Let’s talk why I’m bringing all of this up.

Humans like labeling things. That means that nearly everyone with OCD who has gone and investigated themselves on the internet is familiar with very specific ways to denote how their OCD presents.

Disaster OCD. POCD. ROCD. Harm OCD. Pure O.

To be as clear as I possibly can, all of those extra unique titles are just a fancy way of saying, “I obsess about X.” It is all OCD. They are useful categories when it comes to explaining your personal experience, but the diagnosis remains OCD. The extra fluff of other letters or words is just shorthand.

What I have would be called Pure O. It stands for “pure obsessional.” Like several bits of naming vernacular OCD communities adopt, that’s a misnomer. It gets the name because with Pure O, the compulsion is obsession. All of the compulsions are relatively invisible because they happen internally.

To be even more specific, one of my themes is moral scrupulosity.

An obsession with being moral.

If I’m angry over something, my mind wants five hours of pacing and detailed thought analysis explaining why, in order for it to judge if it is acceptable to have those feelings.

If something hurts me, my mind wants five hours of pacing and detailed thought analysis explaining why, in order for it to judge if it is acceptable to have those feelings.

If I like something untoward, my mind wants five hours of pacing and detailed thought analysis explaining why, in order for it to judge if it is acceptable to have those feelings.

It isn’t enough to have feelings. Those feelings have to be Right. They have to be justified. If I can’t justify them, they shouldn’t be there, because I need to be right. I can’t just dislike something. I can’t just be angry. I definitely can’t like things.

There have to be Reasons.

Before I went to therapy, that was my entire life. Not letting any of my emotional responses go, because the most Important thing in the world was being a good person, and the only way to know that I’m being a good person is to have a solid copy of every argument that I can come up with that’s even slightly to related to whatever it was I was thinking about.

Usually, the end result (using ‘end’ loosely) was a bunch of exhausted, dizzy thoughts, and deep emotional unrest. Along with hours of my life that I’d spent entirely inside my own head, contributing nothing to the outside world.

Fandom right now is such a trip for me, because it’s full of people validating my worst moments. They dance with the rhetoric that the hell inside my head invented for me, and that’s considered right and proper.

Everyone gets so worked up over whether or not something is problematic. Everyone gets so worked up over whether or not it’s okay to ship a thing. Everyone gets so worked up over there only ever being five ways to ethically enjoy a problematic thing. Everyone gets so worked up disagreeing.

Everyone gets so worked up over proving their point.

Because it’s all so important.

When I was first seeking treatment specifically for my OCD troubles, I talked to my therapist about its qualification as an anxiety disorder. Yes, I told her, I spend hours and hours and hours turning things over in my head, it makes me miserable, and it is a problem, but... I don’t feel, like, anxious about it.

She asks me what happens if I stop. I stare at her blankly. ...Stop? ??? What do you mean... stop? There wasn’t any answer to that. Not following through on my compulsions was such an impossibility that I couldn’t even figure out why it was so important to do them.

The compulsions are a broken coping mechanism to keep the anxiety at a distance.

Put in the terms of standard human interaction, it’s a layer of crap meant to distract from the real issue.

The real issue is the feelings, and the refusal to let yourself have them.

You treat OCD by cutting out the compulsions and letting the anxiety happen. Instead of prolonging it, you let all of the torment wash over you. You don’t engage. You just allow it to exist.

Slowly, you ease out of the rut the compulsions dug. Are the feelings fun? No. Does every part of your soul want to kick and scream and defend yourself? Yes.

Will that ultimately make the pain worse?

Hell yes.

There are so many different ways to look at my mental history, look at fandom, and start going off about how damaging certain things can be. I honestly wouldn’t know where to start if I wanted to get through them all. I began this post without a clue where I’d end up.

The thing about making stuff Important is that then you can borrow from other Important things to illustrate your point. After all, it’s all on the same level of importance. This creates a loop of intensity, where the Importance keeps growing, and growing, and any threat to the Important thing is worthy of unholy wrath for the sake of all that is good in the world.

Very, very quickly, rival ships aren’t just an unpleasant thing. They’re dangerous. They caused you discomfort, pain even, and here’s ten thousand reasons that make an ironclad case for destroying every trace of the evil.

Borrowing rhetoric feels good. It turns your uneasy feelings into something bigger than yourself; something righteous. You aren’t just a tired human who wishes fandom liked what you like more, you’re a crusader against injustice.

We’re all tired humans.

Whatever you’re feeling, however awful or good it is, one of the most destructive things you can do to yourself (or others) is demand a reason for it. Humans are emotional idiots capable of feeling more for people who don’t exist than for each other.

It’s okay to have feelings just because you have feelings. They don’t need to be right or wrong. You are allowed to exist without reason. You can read a book or listen to a song and take it however you want.

The people around you can, too.

Obsession steals away perception. It makes small things feel more important than anything else. Shouting at other people for doing things wrong becomes more obviously meaningful than building up what you find to be right.

The most important thing in your fandom experience should be yourself. It is not supposed to hurt you. Pain is the universal sign that something is wrong. Experiencing it during something that should be enriching your life is a problem, and just because other people can set it off doesn’t mean that they’re the cause.

Whenever someone brings up fandom and its purity kick, I remember what it’s like to be trapped in that type of thinking. It’s still something I struggle with. Daily. People diving into it blindly because the train tracks are all set up and ready to go is distressing.

I don’t really know what I’m trying to get at with all of this, so I can’t wrap it up very neatly. I just wanted to share, on the off chance that someone might find something valuable in it.

[alpha-queen-terrorizer]

Here are some notes on how Yanna helps change the overall story of the Sequel Trilogy & some more overall changes I'm adding

Yanna watched Hux carefully as he interacted with the girl, Rey. Helping him stay shielded from her prodding, she was strong in the Force, but it was pure raw power, untrained power. And that set Yanna on edge.

Yanna is a former Jedi turned Dark Side user, she is not however a sith. She has no tendencies toward the inherent dark nature of the Dark side except intrusive thoughts. Sometimes she acts on those thoughts, but most often she ignores them, let's them simmer inside her mind, tapping into them when she uses the force.

Yanna's Punishment from Snoke when both she and Kylo fail to recapture Rey is what truly begins the spiral Hux, Yanna, and Kylo go through to overthrow Snoke. Kylo cares about his best friend more than anything and seeing her hurt like that sets off a switch in his mind. Hux is often accompanied by Yanna when they are summoned to Snoke, the two have a mutual understanding to care for one another in his presence, thus he too feels rage toward Snoke for what he does.

None of the trio know what StarKiller is, aside from a weapon of sorts, until the General commanding it is killed (by Snoke) and Hux is forced to take over. Its then that he realizes it's a constantly moving Armada of experimental Dreadnoughts, that skim wild space, built to be able to Glass entire planets in one hit. (Glassing in SW is extremely scary, it turns dirt, plants, ect. into glass, Mandalor once had it happen)

Yanna and Kylo knew each other as children, and she watched Ben's subtle turn to the Dark Side. She was there when Luke confronted Ben about why they were leaving, Luke made a mistake in his choice of words that set Ben into a rage, accidentally knocking out Luke and destroying the academy.

Rey doesn't escape the first time she is captured by the First Order, instead she is interrogated and kept under surveillance by the Intelligence Minister, Hux. During Rey's time there she starts to learn the inner workings of the First Order, and sees loose threads, ones she pulls on that start to unravel everything that Snoke built. Hux doesn't stop her once he realizes, although warns her of the danger.

Hux himself is mostly disgruntled by how the First Order operates under Snoke. He dislikes how similar they are to the Empire, which in turn makes half of the Galaxy fear and hate them. Once he's appointed Supreme Leader, he begins work on ending and being new objectives. One being sending relief aid to war torn planets and finishing the promise to end the Wookie trade. He also dismantles the stealing of children for soliders. Slavery has no part in his Galaxy.

Snoke himself is also not Palpatine. In fact Sheeve isn't alive at all. The only thing that remains of him, is that the First Order was a contingency plan if he died. Snoke rather, is one of two options I'm playing with. A: just a random Sith who was never intrested in Jedi Sith war and only appeared seeing an opportunity to gain power. Or B: Mace Windu, who not only survived Anakin and Palp, but Coruscants Core, thru sheer use of the Dark side of the Force, and is now using any means necessary to make sure another Yoda and Order 66 doesn't happen.

(Speaking of Yoda) sorry to my Yoda fans. But Yoda is often looked at as an evil figure in the eyes of everyone except Jedi. How his fear of the Dark side and return of Sith clouded him. Jedi are now considered warriors because of him, that his insistence on teaching Jedi to specifically kill Sith, but also teaching them to be peacekeepers was in opposition. Many when talking about the rise of Vader blame the Legendary Master Yoda.

The Resistance is not a small band of remaining New Republic members, but half of the galaxy. The First Order likewise, is not an Empire 2. Rather, they send in Imps to actually peacekeep on planets that were ignore by the New Republic, such as Jakku. The fighting between them begins as a Cold War, as the Galaxy chooses between which one they'd rather have. With the New Republic being the original aggressors. However, many in the outer rim prefer the First Order, because they are actually helping rather than ignoring them. The first fight that begins against the two is when Snoke orders the testing of Starkiller on a New Republic planet.

Luke's disappearance in this version is also different. Rather than him hiding, he actually ended up crash landing on Ach-to after his ship was damaged in the destruction of his Temple. Luke develops severe amnesia and forgets who he is for a time. And with no way off the planet, he just stays there, unaware of what's going on. It's only when Rey finds and presents Anakin's lightsaber that he regains his memories. Rey asks to be trained, but Luke refuses, stating "I can not train Jedi." So Rey takes him back to Leia and the Resistance, but she herself doesn't stay, taking up Kylo's offer of training now realizing she has no other option. They train in secret together. When not training Rey, Kylo is training the Knights.

The throne room scene is basically the same, except Hux and Yanna are there too, the four of them having planned the coup beforehand. In preparation for this, Yanna has been training Hux on how to use a lightsaber, modifying one of her's so that it doesn't require the Force to be use once passed of to him. When they come out victorious, Kylo doesn't give his offer to Rey, instead Hux asks her to call off the Resistance. Asks for her to arrange a truce between the two factions.

Said truce has high tension between both sides. The first order brought Yanna, Kylo, Hux, and Phasma, and in a show of peace only one ship lands, however others are on standby if it turns bloody. While the Resistance has well, everyone. They talk about who has the better government, and Hux even suggests, now being the Leader, that the two merge together. Leia is against the idea, still having repressed memories about the Empire and destruction of Alderaan that she never fully processed. Then shouting begins, and there's solid arguments on both sides. But by the end of it a blaster is fired, thus starting a battle.

The end of the movie is basically the same, except less angry Kylo at Luke. However, Luke does still die here, sacrificing himself so the Resistance can escape the superior weaponry of the First Order. Rey however is at odds with herself. On one hand her friends are in the Resistance, on the other she genuinely saw potential in the First Order as a government. Unsure of what to do her instant choice is to escape with the Resistance.

By the beginning of the next movie, the First Order has been making genuine good progress and faith with the people of the Galaxy. Enough so that some people in the New Republic have been voicing concerns about their leaders. Hux is loved by many, although that love is still often because of fear. Yanna stays mostly by Hux during this time, acting as his Right Hand, while Phasma is his Grand General. Kylo however has been at work with the Knights, tracking down Rey. His bond with her helping in that front.

The Resistance however has been hard at work, building up bases and their numbers, still trying to undermine the First Order. Leia spends most of her time finishing Rey's training, leaving Poe in charge alongside Mothma. Finn is working hard training new recruits and acting as head of Intelligence, knowing the most about the First Order. Rose is now in charge of the pilots since Poe no longer can. She helps Poe and Finn realize their affection for each other, bringing them together.

Rey spends a lot of time away from the Resistance, still unsure if they truly are the right choice. Instead she let's the Force guide her, by now she has a grip on both the Light and Dark side, becoming truly equal and balanced. She often leaves to find and explore old ruins of Force users, Dark and Light.

It's at one of these ruins that she meets Kylo again. He greets her by engaging with a quick spar between them. It's not aggressive or meant to harm, but rather see how far her training has come. Rey fights him and when she gets the upper hand clearly wining and with opportunity to kill him, she doesn't. Instead she smiles at him and offers her hand, helping him up. They explore the ruins and talk about what each has been doing over the past year. Kylo explains that mostly he's been searching for her, having left Hux completely in charge, helping him when he needs, but more engaged in following the Ren and finding more Knights to train. He offers her that title, but she refuses. She then explains that she's been learning everything she could about the downfall of both Jedi and Sith. And she explains that she doesn't think either should return, that neither were right. Kylo wants to rebuttal but she sends him a look that shuts him down. He only sighs and while not agreeing doesn't object. It's not long after, both get a sudden feeling in the back of their mind. Something dark, a Warning.

Hux in the meantime has been once more setting up a meeting between the New Republic, talking to Poe at times. When he denies at first, Hux caves and sends Yanna directly. Yanna doesn't know where their base is located, but is able to latch onto Finn's force signature and follows that. When she walks into their base she's instantly surrounded by blasters. She explains why she's there and is restrained, her lightsabers taken. Poe and Mothma both deny the request again, locking the three in a debate, but when neither party can agree they call it off. Yanna is detained there, unable to leave because now she knows where they are.

While there Finn feels a tug to speak to her, and when he does she finally reveals to him something he's suspected. He is Force sensitive. She offers to train him, but he's suspicious of her intentions and makes a joke about how he'd rather eat a Hutts behind. She only shrugs and leaves the option available. The next day comes and Finn still feels that itch to speak to her, so he returns and begins questioning her. She answers everything he ask in ernest, slowly gaining his trust. Again the next day is the same he returns to her cell and this time asks why. Yanna flat put states she has no ill will toward him, toward any of them, that she just sees another force sensitive in need of guidance and wishes to help. Hesitantly Finn agrees, but states she has to stay in the cell, she only laughs amused.

So, Yanna and Finn train, starting with meditation, similar to how Luke originally trained her. Then she guides him on levitation. And eventually she instructs him on lightsaber stances, him using her own sabers. This is done in secret at first, but then Leia is made aware and storms in to confront Yanna. Surprisingly Yanna and Leia spiral into a long conversation which ends up with them sympathetic towards each other. That's when Yanna looks her in the eyes and says, "Let Hux have his audience. Listen to him, he just wants peace." Leia lets out a long sigh and then nods.

Then we cut back to Rey and Kylo, the Knights trailing behind, taking a liking to Rey instantly. The Knights specifically have relaxed in their ways, Kylo being a new source of inspiration for them, for he follows the Ren, but in a way they didn't original plan. The black feeling that both Rey and Kylo got leads them to the Sith homeworld, or what they thought. As they inspect closer they realize that the Sith race wasn't native to this planet, but conquered it hundreds of years prior, because of the raw Force that emanates from the planet itself. They stumble upon a large mural, that depicts the return of the Sith once the grand Prophecy has been fulfilled. Instantly Kylo remembers Vader, The Chosen One. But? If the Sith were said to return at the fulfillment of the prophecy, where were they? Its then that Rey's eyes go wide as she uncovers a hidden part of the mural. The Prophecy wasn't The Chosen One, but when the Last Jedi Falls. (Nudge nudge wink wink)

We then return to Hux, who surprisingly is at the Resistance base, talking to Leia who this time is genuinely listening to him. They talk of about the effects of either merging or acting separately as allies. Its then that suddenly Rey and Kylo rush in, Rey is surprised by Hux but shakes it off quickly, warning them of the Sith. As she does the sky darkens and a rolling of thunder shakes the ground. They all exit the building to see massive ships that haven't been used since the days of the Old Republic. They seem to linger too long because a bombardment of explosions goes off nearby, having been dropped from of the fighters. Hux looks to Leia who nods determined and its then that both Resistance and First Order fight together against this threat.

Hux calls in all his troops to the planet, Yanna right behind him as they run to the frontlines. Its here we see Hux pull out a weapon, at first glance it's a lightsaber, but then its easily realized in fact it's a proto saber, connected to a small box hidden on Hux's belt. The two are joined by Finn, who at first pulls out his blaster, but Yanna sends a disappointed look his way, before tossing him one of her own. He looks shocked, then grins.

Kylo, Rey, and the Knights start the first push as the Sith begin their ground assault.

Rose and Poe lead the battle in their ships beside Phasma.

Leia doesn't necessarily join in, but holds down command, sending new information to the troops as it comes in. And sending out distress signals to anyone who will answer.

For a long while its chaos, as they don't nearly have enough manpower to fight the entire Sith. Then a booming sound stops the fighting for a moment as they all look up, and there in the sky is hundreds of ships, from both the First Order and New Republic. They've won before the Sith even have a chance.

Once everything settles and everyone is obviously okay, Hux, Leia and Poe all come together. Hux calmly asks once more for a ceasefire and alliance, to which both Poe and Leia agree.

Roll credits.

Not everything as you can see is extremely fleshed out and things are still subject to change. But overall, this is the direction I wish to take this rewrite in. I hope you stick around to see it happen.

[queenrhenpendragon]

lard is still crap: part 2

Here we go AGAIN because apparently nobody can leave me alone about lard no matter what I try, let’s talk a little more about why shipping lard with Dameon is not one iota more appealing to me than the other thing people be so obsessed with.

By the way, these are not just my feelings. There are plenty of people who wish they could get away from this conversation and you know, seeing as I and most of them have made great efforts to keep our content in it’s own nice little space instead of trying to shove it down everyone’s throats, maybe for once some of you could return the favor.

First of all, stop acting like the rest of us just “don’t see it” because we don’t understand tropes or are too stuck on our other ships to see anything else or whatever because THAT. IS. NOT. THE. REASON. We’ve read just as many works of fiction as anyone else if not more, and we all passed our literary analysis classes. We’ve been in love. We’ve watched our friends be in love. There are plenty of characters I can see with multiple others and I’m sure everyone else has similar experiences. We’re not ignorant for disagreeing with you about snark and bullying being romantic. We don’t like the ship because it’s toxic. 

And before you go off on your love-hate lecture that for some reason you think I haven’t already heard 9843698248729 times, don’t because a good love-hate story is about legitimate differences of opinion that are BOTH given respect and attention, or personality differences that MAKE SENSE and again are both given respect and attention and most importantly that are WORKED THROUGH properly and with compassion as the characters come to understand each other. In this case and another I could name there is no reason for the “conflict” besides lard being a jerk (and if you really think y’all are giving equal attention and respect to the characters then please think again). One character being a bully and the other standing up for themselves or others does not fit the bill and it does not impress some of us. For us this ship is too much about conflict and  “clever” snarky lines and sexualization and too little about healing and kindness and actual healthy intimacy, and there’s already so much fetishizing and objectifying and abuse, I’m not interested in content that explicitly OR impllicitly supports that kind of thing. I don’t ship it and I’m not going to and neither are the other people who are tired of love being portrayed as something vicious and volatile and destructive.

Also. The reason even people who aren't normally bothered by even the most pathetic excuses for the “love”-hate type of thing are still uncomfortable with this pairing is because it is inherently character-bashing. It's not a version of Dameon that exists in the game or in the minds of anyone who cares at all about him. It's the version that was specifically made up to hate on and to justify much worse characters (for example maybe LARD). Give it half a second of thought. In canon there's Dameon, the quiet, emotional boy with a literally canonly traumatic childhood that included his father's DEATH, who is still polite to everyone and makes an effort to relate to EVERYONE including heckin Mad Marge, who gives thoughtful and sweet compliments to people who are even marginally nice to him, who makes sure Rhen is all right and is always explicitly giving her his support in whatever she decides, whose one mistake was believing someone who promised they would fix the world where those he trusted had neglected it. And he COMPLETELY turns it around by the end, of his own free will despite staggering personal costs.

And then there's lard, canonically spoiled rotten, mean to literally everyone and won't even engage in conversation with most of the party, never talks about anyone but himself even when he does consent to conversation. Even if it seems like he's going to, it always. ALWAYS ends up being about him again. His biggest mistakes are bullying literal children, as in PHYSICALLY hurting them, and torturing someone who minorly inconvenienced him one measly time for over a year. His biggest accomplishment is being slightly less of a jerk by the end, and making no sacrifices whatsoever to prove or cement it.

But the lard/dameon content always gives lard all the sympathy in the narrative. His problems (all completely invented by his fans, by the way!) get all the focus, he's the one who gets to develop meaningful relationships with other characters and have his "traumas" talked about and pitied and worked through, while Dameon is portrayed as wrong and rightfully scolded for being upset that his father was literally murdered. Lard even gets the parental love from Talia, and Dameon is painted as toxic and cruel for having any kind of problem with it. Lard gets the friendship of every single character despite, again,  REFUSING to talk to most of them in canon, while Dameon is hated or barely tolerated by all of them. Lard is the obvious favorite (pretty much like in another certain pairing) and Dameon is just fun to hate on, or at best fun to sexualize. 

Does that sound like something someone who cared about Dameon would enjoy seeing? No? That's because IT'S NOT.  It's bashing, whether the shippers want to admit it or not, whether they believe it is or not. It would be bashing to portray Dameon like that in any context, but with the juxtaposition of an actually mean and arrogant character being treated with sympathy and adoration? How can you not realize the hypocrisy and injustice? Really, why is anybody surprised Dameon fans are not a fan of this? And all of the people who like this ship have explicitly expressed their dislike of Dameon, so really I'm not making any kind of leap here. Not even a tiny baby jump. Just take a step back and think about why you ever thought a Dameon fan would enjoy this content. OF COURSE WE DON'T. Why would we want to see a character we like twisted this way? Why would we enjoy something that ignores, mocks, or destroys the things we liked in the first place? Why would we want to see a sweetheart treated like a villain and objectified? WE WOULDN'T JUST LEAVE US ALONE FOR REAL, you all have so many spaces to talk about what you like please, please stop dragging it into the few tiny spaces the rest of us have and stop trying to indoctrinate us, it’s not going to work, it’s just going to make me frustrated and I’ll have to write another rant to get it out of my system and nobody wants that so STOP already thank you

[recessanger91-blog]

We Need to Talk About 'The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel' Season 2 Ending

This post contains spoilers about season two of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, now streaming on Amazon. Stream It

As the title of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season two finale suggests, the episode’s theme is about being “All Alone.” It’s a stark contrast to the hoopla of the nine previous episodes, which ranged from the meticulously orchestrated events at the Steiner resort in the Catskills (hair appointments, Simon Says, Susie’s “search party”) to the supremely entertaining road trip Susie and Midge took for a mini comedy tour. Midge and Benjamin’s courtship was also nice to look at, just like an expensive piece of art. Through the nine episodes, there was always something going on, some dramatic, over-the-top but all too familiar problem to solve, and of course, a fresh glass of tomato juice at Abe’s disposal.

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In “All Alone,” it’s business as usual for the main cast, but only if you concentrate on screen time. For the most part, instead of the chipper and chaos, we have some characters experiencing solitude for the first time, while others are just breaking into or rediscovering the best version of themselves, something Rose tried to achieve in Paris earlier in the season.

For starters, it looks like Abe is getting ready for “a really good fight” involving a lawyer (and if he has his way, some really good signs) in wake of the Bell Labs/Columbia drama. Joel is sitting on a hefty check from his father but refuses to leave the factory. (Is he afraid of being alone?) Lenny Bruce, Midge’s confidante and fellow comedian, has allowed the profession to catch up to him and apparently, his marriage. Susie, meanwhile, must consider life with two clients: Midge and Sophie Lennon, who’s just asked Susie to be her manager. (For now, this secret belongs to Susie and Susie alone.)

In an uncharacteristic move (and without much thought) Midge agrees to go on the road for six months with singer Shy Baldwin as his opening act. Remember, this is the same girl who brought too many outfits to both the Catskills and her east coast tour. This spur-of-the-moment behavior is new—and gives her life.

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But by the episode’s final minutes, Midge realizes that comedy—specifically, being successful in the comedy world—comes with a price. (It already has, from how it affected her children to all the work it took for her to tell her parents.) As she says to Joel in the scene that likely made your heart jump, right before that ~kiss~:

I said yes, just like that, didn’t think about it. didn’t think about anything or anyone. Just yes. And I understand, now. Everything’s different. I can’t go back to Jello molds. There won’t be three before thirty, for me. I just made a choice. I am going to be all alone for the rest of my life. That’s what I just decided in the five minute phone call. Amazing, isn’t it? I’m gonna leave really soon, barely enough time to get packed, especially the way I travel. And I don’t want to be alone, not tonight. Tonight, just for tonight, I really need to be with someone who loves me.

Midge and Joel’s hookup at the factory shouldn’t come as a surprise, considering the flashback to the night of their engagement (when Midge was a blonde and Joel had the power to stop traffic) at the beginning of the episode. These kids were in love once, and will be in love with each other until the end of time, despite what it says on the divorce papers that may never come.

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As the shock of this moment slowly wears off (give it a few more days, or just rewatch season one to remind yourself of what Joel did to get to this factory situation), here are some other lingering thoughts. Don’t theorize too long, though—season three is just around the corner.

Will Midge actually go through with the tour? Technically, Midge hasn’t signed anything and we haven’t seen Susie actually connect with Shy Baldwin’s people to finalize the contract. Given her reasoning for arriving at Joel’s (“just for tonight”) and her determination to pack with limited time, all signs are pointing to her being on the road after her hookup.

Will Susie eventually tell Midge of Sophie Lennon’s offer? Signing someone as big as Sophie Lennon could possibly be the highlight of Susie’s career, but will her loyalty to Midge get in the way? Seeing as Susie keeps the news to herself through the end of the episode, I expect some sort of big confrontation scene to pop up on season three. That, or it was all a dream. (Sophie Lennon’s house does behave an awful lot like a dream, from the mystery rooms to the free coats.)

What’s going to happen to Benjamin? If the charms of Zachary Levi didn’t sweep you off your feet/make you want to buy oversized suits for your significant other, you may skip this point. But for fans of Midge and Benjamin, it would be awful for the show to build him up in season two only to have Midge go back to Joel or worse, be single while she’s on tour and becoming famous. The look of Midge’s face in reaction to Abe finally saying yes to Benjamin’s proposal in the season finale should be enough for anyone betting against a wedding in season three. Then again, who doesn’t love a good TV love triangle?

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Who will Abe sue? Until the writing of this piece, I was convinced that Abe was amped up to sue Bell Labs and Columbia University. But if the episode’s theme of being alone also applies to Abe, should viewers be worried about an Abe and Rose divorce? Mrs. Maisel writers: If you’re reading this and are considering this direction, please just have them go back to Paris so they can reunite with Simone the dog and waltz by the Siene!

When will the Lenny Bruce and Midge Maisel ship set sail? Some fans have been shipping Lenny and Midge ever since they met on season one (#TBT to him bailing her out of jail). On season two, they share some nice scenes, including one on the night of Benjamin and Midge’s date. The real Lenny Bruce died of a drug overdose in the mid-1960s, which doesn’t give this dream storyline a lot of time, so @writers, again, if you’re reading this, give the people what they want, even if it’s a couple of nice dates or more bailouts!

Source: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/tv/a25442063/marvelous-mrs-maisel-season-2-ending-theories/