#writing a gay little meta

[ponchizs]

I’m in love with how they are giving so many subtle hints about Alhaitham and Kaveh’s relationship and how important it is to Alhaitham, despite the way they always seem to be bickering.

Throughout the 3.2 archon quest Alhaitham tells us that the reason why he is so interested in helping Sumeru is because he doesn’t want his daily life to change. After that Kaveh starts being mentioned very frequently by him or we hear other people in the akademiya complain about how they daily argue.

Then, of course, we meet them both arguing with each other in the House of Daena, which was quite the argument. We also know many of their casual interactions and how they go to the café/bar frequently together. Furthermore, Alhaitham pays all of Kaveh’s bills (something no one would do for someone they don't care for).

And now, during Alhaitham’s quest, their tones were so soft (At least in JP and CN) and also domestic. Kaveh seems to worry a lot about Alhaitham and exchanges glances with him, which made me melt inside. I also love how Alhaitham is constantly smiling while bickering with kaveh. Remember, we dont see him smiling like this that often. Which means he really enjoys it. I really liked how after the second time Kaveh asked him if he is okay, he replied with a tease about the painting Kaveh had mentioned before. Also smiling.

But most importantly, something I see no one talking about: the moment when Alhaitham was explaining why he resigned from being the Grand Sage to being the scribe again and he tells us that “It’s important to keep your priorities straight”, the camera points at Kaveh.

I know this game will probably never have any canon ship because they need to make everyone happy, but we do get hints like this from time to time and I think this was one of them.

After all, why would they bother to add all of those scenes with Kaveh when the quests had already concluded, if not for showing us how is what is Alhaitham’s daily life he wants to protect that much? We saw how happy he is, how eager he was to get home and go have dinner with Kaveh. We also see how Kaveh had been waiting for him as well.

I’d like to know more about their relationship, even if it ends up not being romantic (though how do you explain that face Kaveh made when paimon asked if they are friends).

[mai-komagata]

i love the snw sneak peek

but im upset that im gonna be subjected to charades-hater takes from this website for about 12 months. Aliens have different biologies, neurologies, *AND* cultures, ok? Also, it's fun and star trek is ridiculous, just roll with it.

Also a+ casting on Roger Korby. And the new hairstyles?? Uhura and Chapel looking spectacular. And scotty was there! He's such a cutie patootie. All of them are so awesome i missed them so much. Love spock being so put upon. :D.

[psalmsofpsychosis]

"#Batman resists his own insanity so it spreads to e v e r y t h i n g around him"

You can't just say this and not elaborate in great detail. PLEASE elaborate oh my God. I do agree but I want to hear every single thought you have about this topic.

Btw, I'm the same Anon who asked -- or not really asked but more so talked -- about Batman and Joker's soulmate sort of bond.

AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN WITH "COMBINING JOKER'S HEAD WITH BATMAN'S BODY"???????

I was thinking along the lines of the concept version and how they could never be satisfied like this, united in one body. What is the result of mixing chaos and order? What is the result of mixing the act of forgetting the past and fixating on it? What do you get through combining the ideology of making everything matter and taking all meaning away?

The result is that the pure concepts become stained and dull, pushed away from their original function, losing their purpose to oppose each other.

Becoming one entity is the act of becoming complete (concepts being stained) and losing the thing that made them them. Batman and Joker were never meant to unite in this way with overlapping voices, finishing each others thoughts and sentences and it SHOWS. I'm in love with their grotesque obsession with each other that borders on love and punishment. Their desire to win and conquer the other for good but never being able to because losing one side takes away the purpose of the other.

That's why I'm so, so, SO disappointed with how the Batman Who Laughs turned out. Where are my identity crises? Plural, because this could never be an one-and-done kind of deal. They became OneTM, inentionally or not, but BeforeTM, they were always wondering what it would be like. Batman could try to get closer to Joker's mental state but never fully experience it, same with Joker. But now they are OneTM and then what? Batman is just the Joker with Bruce's memories and face. I can't begin to describe how boring that is. That's like if DC made a "Deadpool kills the Marvel Universe" story only they used Joker instead of Deadpool.

Do you see my vision? Can you feel my pain? I wanted to psychoanalyse that asshole with my amateurish psychology knowledge but they only gave us a watered down Joker who makes other Batmen less interesting upon contact. WHERE ARE THE IDENTITY CRISES?? WHERE IS THE DIFFICULTY IN MAKING A DECISION?? WHERE ARE THE LENGTHY MONOLOGUES ARGUING BACK AND FORTH OR CONTRADICTING EACH OTHER ALL THE TIME??? The Batman Who Laughs is basically Two Face but without the wall seperating Harvey and Two Face. Joker!Batman should be unable to do anything or constantly switch between Bruce and Joker or save one life and then turn around and kill it. Like, where is the complexity? Why the hell is that guy only a murder machine?? That was neither Joker nor Batman's whole purpose??

Tell me all your thoughts, my friend, while I'm here spinning in circles and going insane. I'll never get out of this alive, you'll still find me ruminating on this on my deathbed.

I swear, if you give an absolute banger of an answer again, I'll come and start living in your walls.

Have a nice day!! :)

ANON LOVE OF MY LIFE, i'm shoveling all the insides of my walls out as we speak, you can move in by Wednesday morning—

Like, the way i felt every single word you said in my bones. You are so right, and there are a couple different points here and it's gonna get longer than usual so i'll separate each thought thread to avoid drowning in lé brain soup.

• Re: batman resisting his own insanity, i feel like i have simultaneously talked about this in 7986 different ways and haven't said anything about it at all 😂 possibly most of it has been discord ramblings. Long story short, the spine of his narrative to me is that he actively resists his own humanity and in extension of it, his evil. He wants to be good. But there's also immense psychological/emotional/physical price we pay whenever we make these kind of choices; whatever we disown and banish to our subconscious, we project out into the world and unto the people around us. The load you refuse to carry will be carried by the people around you, because at the end of the day /someone/ has to carry it, it doesn't just disappear into ether. So, in a way, for Batman to remain good, to remain a hero, someone else has to be bad. The extent in which Batman keeps his goodness "pure and untainted" dictates the horrors created around him— and particularly the creation of Joker. I say creation because the existence of Batman as a concept absolutely necessitates the existence of Joker. In a way Batman does create him, and it's true that with Batman gone Joker and half the evil in Gotham would be gone too, not because Batman is an evil presence— but precisely because he disowns his own evil.

And the thing is, in the specific context of Joker, it has become this almost loving, adoring symbiotic relationship; Joker has willingly shaped himself to fit the outline of an evil that Batman needs to defeat, he has become the sin that Batman can overcome so he can stay a saint. I actually have a draft on this that i never finished, a meta about how all the coloring choices in Joker's design eerily resemble the different color stages of a wound and the bruising after, how Batman almost feels like Jesus with Joker as his side wound, Joker being the price he pays and the pain he goes through for his martyrdom in order to stay pure, for his idealogy to have any form of meaning and significance, Joker being his very own holy suffering.

We fundamentally understand reality in form of contrasts, internal ones, external ones. As you very well pointed out, without an innate sense of contrast, we cease to have any form of coherent grasp on different concepts, and they start to sort of become noise, they become nothing. Would you truly understand what a day was and grasp it as a concept if it wasn't followed by a night? So like, what i'm saying is, people around Bruce/Batman become what he needs because they love him and they want to help him keep his narrative, the structure of his psyche intact. They help him stay 'him' by taking on the burden of what he doesn't want to be, he subconsciously shapes them in the image of what he needs to uphold his identity as a good person. This is why Alfred becomes Joker to save him, this is why Selina is the more socially acceptable pretty Joker that Bruce can actually marry and bring to his family, this is why Joker and Batman feel like they can never escape their narrative, their roles and their performance. It's the reason the moment Batman lurches to kill The Riddler in "the war of jokes and riddles", Joker stops his knife with his hand. It's their defined roles, and the greatest act of love that noone except Joker would show him. Joker says "I'm the sacrifice. I'm the evil, i'm the one who kills, i have made this choice so you can make yours. You're the good one. If you become evil, it renders both your efforts and my sacrifice meaningless, and i can not allow that to happen." And it's a truly fascinating dynamic really, for all that Joker has and hasn't done throughout the Batmanverse history, when it comes to Batman he's irredeemably selfless. Everything he does regarding Batman is to keep Batman's sense of goodness and heroism intact, and in this context he's more pure than him. Everyone around Batman wants him to kill, perhaps rightfully so, they mean well. But Joker says "i'll bear all the unbearable evil so you dont have to, and we both acutely understand that without my existence you mean nothing. I will be the monster so you dont have to." And honest to god there's a heartbreaking affection to this, something noone else will ever be willing or want to offer to Bruce, not to this extent.

in 'the war of jokes and riddles' Bruce tells Selina that "what separates him from utter evil is a hand on his knife. Joker's hand." like bro, he knows. In a deeply twisted and gutwrenching way Bruce knows that noone loves him the way Joker does.

• Re: combining Joker and Batman's heads and bodies, i was thinking.... two concepts maybe?? 👀 one is more like the Dullahan myth, in which Batman loses his head but he isn't carrying it, Joker steals it. And then Joker loses his head and Batman has to keep it and he's forced to use it. It'd be an insanely fun concept; the Dullahan myth can be interpreted as the idea of death of self by supposedly losing all that would make you human; your thoughts and memories and logic, etc. Except that you still have a heart, and a body, and they're not exactly cooperative. It'd be fun to have Joker's mind trying to tame Batman's heart and body, each fighting and singing their own song, same for Batman. A version of the myth has Dullahan carrying a human spine in one hand, and i mean, the possibilities are endless!

But also another concept would be: two frankenstein monsters lmaooo, same sense of discordent internal landscape, same sense of ideological tension and conflict, but also someone's gotta [tw mentions of gore] chop chop them and sew their body parts together, and that can be another interesting element added to their fucked up dynamic ✨️ it can also be Joker as Dr Frankensten and he sews parts of himself to Batman in order to save him!

• Re: Batman Who Laughs, oh girl (gn), i have nothing to add that you haven't already said more beautifully than me. There's so much emotional nuance and complex philosophy that could've gone into that concept, it's certainly one of the hardest Batman story variations to pull off, and weirdly enough, the people who dont directly aim for "Batman becomes Joker/Joker becomes Batman" stories often tell a better more intricate tale about that transformation than the people who straight up shoot for the concept. One of the things that always sends a chill down my spine is the ending of Batman: Europa, in which Joker is terrified and screaming as Batman laughs and lurches for him; that's the dynamic, that's the Batman who laughs, and the most unsettling part of it is that, Batman doesn't change. He doesn't have to. On a core level he is quite frankly a bit fucked up, it's not a stretch for Batman to be evil, and that's why his goodness is meaningful. Cue Nietsche's quote, "Of all evil I deem you capable: Therefore I want good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws." Batman is not a good guy entirely, and that makes his goodness a conscious choice with so much weight and worth and significance. I dont think a lot of DC people understand this.

With Batman Who Laughs, the name kinda sums up the take unfortunately; it's a superficial interpretation that falls flat on its own face because the writers couldn't be assed to explore how a chemical combination of Batman and Joker's narrative would unfold. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as with any potent chemical reaction, the mixture is highly unstable and unpredictable, and that's the fucking fun of it. There's gotta be tension. I do think Batman and Joker can very well mix, i do think they can make a seamless fusion, but i dont trust any canon DC writers to handle the characterization well in a way that doesn't bore you out of your fucking mind. You gotta make a new person and you gotta capitalise on the core components both Batman and Joker share; their incessant sense of idealism, their need for purity, their volatile emotions and their aggression, their need to individuate from their context and deviate from the norm, take the third way out narrative wise, their philosophical and intellectual bend, their immense grief, their need to be oh so special and different 😂 they actually have a whole lot in common, this is why they're perfect enemies!

But yeah, writing that personality fusion is very hard because it's such an emotionally complex context and most DC writers have not felt a single emotion in the past 35 years aflhdtdhlf

Anyway yep i love your brain so SO much Anon, hope you have a wonderful day ❤️💕 and dont forget to tell me what ya think!!

[suffarustuffaru]

if i wrote a comprehensive analysis of reading into otto's character from a queer lens (with extensive text citations) would you read it bc ive thought way too much about this for the sake of my silly anime fanfiction okay. i know too much about this topic now and i gotta let the energy out <33

[ssruis]

On one hand I dislike the implication that people treating pandemonium as Thee Ruikasa event is a bad thing because it’s really kind of a nonissue and just like with whip the wimp girl I feel like the people complaining about it are embodying this gif

However on the other hand unlike with wtwg where everyone going crazy over anhane undoubtably cared a lot about both anhane and what the event meant for their individual characters, I know that there *is* a decent amount of people who care less about what the event said about rui (& tsukasa) as characters and only focus on the ruikasa aspect. & that’s probably frustrating for people who don’t care abt ruikasa.

Not really a fixable issue though. idk what to tell you. That’s kinda just part and parcel of participating in a fanbase. By virtue of ruikasa being super popular you’re going to have a higher number of super annoying people and you kinda need to just block people who get on your nerves and seek out people you agree with more. Make the content you want to see in the world. Etc.

[talesofsymphoniac]

Jo March from Little Women (2019) makes me feel aromantic feelings: a manifesto

Okay, basics out of the way-- Jo lives in a time where she is expected to get married and explicitly expresses that she likely never will and has no desire to.

Her character explores ideas about family and growing up and the idea that the past/childhood can't be clung to-- as Beth puts it, "It's like the tide going out. It goes out slowly, but it can't be stopped." In context, she's specifically talking about her impending death, but it's not too much of a stretch to apply it to Jo's sense that "childhood is over," a sentiment that she expresses at Meg's wedding.

Marriage is something that seems to weigh heavily on Jo's mind throughout the movie-- not only is she shown to be supremely disinterested in it for herself, but she also expresses multiple times that she also dreads the marriage of her sisters, viewing it as having them "stolen away" from her. Multiple times in the movie, when she expresses this sentiment, the response she gets is that she will understand when she falls in love, herself. It goes without saying that that is something aromantic people are told a lot-- that they will understand when they meet the right person-- but what resonates with me about this is something else: in these scenes, Jo is expressing her distress, but those who care about her have no way to understand the source of her distress, and no real way to comfort her, because in the framework of their society, there are very few respectable alternatives to marriage.

To me, the scene that highlights this most strongly is the scene where Jo tries to talk Meg out of her marriage. The quote that gets remembered from this scene is Meg's line, "just because my dreams are different than yours doesn't mean they're unimportant." Which is true, and a deeply powerful thing for Meg to get to say, especially given that she's marrying a poor man for love after she's had it impressed on her that she needed to marry well to care for her family.

But that line is heartbreaking from Jo's point of view. Because while she is certainly being a bit of a dick about her sister's future husband, this scene is a last-ditch effort to explain to her family that she feels abandoned and lost. To me, it kind of parallels Laurie's confession later-- Jo wants, more than anything, to stay with her sisters, and she knows that it's not a possibility the way she wants it to be. In the last moment, she confesses this, knowing what Meg's answer will be, knowing that Meg loves her but that they see their futures differently and there is no way around that.

Meg refuses her, explicitly saying that what she wants is to build her life with her new husband. And that's right for her to say, and I very much doubt Jo expected her to say anything else. But Meg says "childhood was going to end eventually. And what a happy end," oblivious to the fact that for Jo, it isn't a happy end at all, and furthermore there is no clear happy ending in sight for her.

I think there is a lot to be said about the fear of losing one's childhood and having to step into adulthood. But I really think there is more going on than that, here. When Laurie confesses to Jo, she tells him that she doesn't think she will ever marry. But she knows that her sisters will, and that Laurie will. It's not just that childhood is ending; it's that as a child, the roles that society expects of her are those of a sister, daughter, and friend, and these are roles she takes on naturally and happily. But for her, stepping into adulthood means new social roles that she can't fill.

She spells this out very clearly when Laurie confesses to her. She can't see herself as a wife, or as a mistress of the house, or in love with Laurie the way a wife should be. Laurie points out that Jo has avoided dealing with his feelings for her for years, and I think the reason for this is the same reason she dreaded Meg's wedding. To Jo, marriage is the reason she loses Meg and Amy, and it is also the reason she can't maintain her position as Laurie's closest companion.

I know that some people probably read Jo's letter to Laurie agreeing to marry him as a feelings realization, or else her settling for a husband that she likes, if not loves, but given her speech about feeling lonely, I read it more as Jo's realizing that if she wants to keep the role she has in Laurie's life, the only way to do it would be to become his wife, or else someone else will. In other words, even though Jo explicitly loathes the idea of marriage, the only way she can see to maintain the closeness that she wants is through marriage.

Laurie says of course she will marry-- she loves too deeply not to. Her mother says that just because she wants to be loved by Laurie isn't the same thing as her loving him. These comments, to me, combine to represent a hurtful trap that nonromantic people are often hit with: Jo is both "too loving" not to eventually find someone she wants to marry, but also, the love she has for Laurie is "not loving enough," since she doesn't want to marry him.

Of course, Jo does get her happy ending adulthood in the form of the school she starts up, with her family ultimately remaining close to her, as well as her own marriage which may or may not have been a fabrication for her publisher. When the world doesn't provide a path for her to follow, she's able to make her own, and of course I think that speaks to all women, straight or otherwise. But those particular elements will always ring a very strong aromantic/asexual bell for me, and I just wanted to talk about that for a while, thanks for reading all this bye.

[angstandhappiness]

INTERESTING

YOUR JIN AND YIN ANSWER WATERED MY CROPS. It was AMAZING! But now I gotta ask one more thing that's been on my mind. I know that SWK and Mac always have a super complicated and interesting dynamic when you write them, especially in your AUs. So I have got to ask something that has been digging into the back of my mind. How much are you willing to info dump about howmst the fuck their whole deal works in Valleys AU?

Hear that? That's the sound of thousands of guns aiming at my followers' hearts. Thank you Skelle

A small disclaimer before reading: I see ShadowPeach as a queerplatonic relationship. I am aroace and will try my goddamn best to explain their relationship in the best way I can but please keep in mind of how they're meant to be seen as you read through this post.

When it comes to how Macaque views Sun Wukong, at first, it is of an unhealthy position based off their rankings and status; Sun Wukong is the King to the four Generals he's named and trained in the means of having four separate minds whom he can trust and go to for advice when it comes to making war tactics and strategies that he himself has not thought up of and, in turn, improving them and leading a kingdom that loves and devotes itself to him. Macaque is not free from this. In fact, he does care for Sun Wukong in the same kind of devotion a follower would have for their leader, he trusts and learns to head the warnings of his King, eventually leading him to blindly trusting Sun Wukong despite the Sage's mistakes and behaviors that are deemed, in several ways, awful by the standards of human kind and yet Liu'er Mihou trusts that his King is doing the right decision at the end of the day—but what made them fall apart in the first place was that he tried, desperately, to cling to these new found emotions that he did not comprehend himself.

When discussing the romantic part of ShadowPeach, let it be clear that Sun Wukong has expressed no romantic feelings towards anyone in the book or in the show and neither has Macaque and, personally, I highly doubt either of them will in the heteronormative way other ships and pairings do. The core truth that demons do not understand the customs and ideals of humans is something very important when discussing two demons who, in fact, are just that: demons. They have their own customs and ways of courting other demons, their own language and, as I assume, their own way of living seeing as Sun Wukong thought it was fine to steal a man's clothes and ran off to find his first Master with said clothes without asking nor apologizing to the traumatized individual. Turning back to Macaque's own feelings, they were not made out of "love" nor was ever going to be "love".

What Macaque felt towards the King that he fought alongside with and carried on to the point of wanting chasing the demon hundreds of years after their last encounter was obsession. It was unhealthy from the moment he decided to devote his life to following Wukong's words. What most people fail to realize is that Macaque is quick to say that others who do not share the same views as him are in the wrong; he does not change his perspective no matter how many times you beat it into him and it's highly apparent in the show. He's obsessed with Sun Wukong to the point of putting him on a pedestal, seeing himself and the other generals are inferior to the Sage, which is what would have left to a rather toxic relationship and Sun Wukong tries to break this tie by denouncing him of his position and ranking as general/marshal. He even tries to play victim in attempt to keeping Sun Wukong with him.

“I’ve been with you for years! I’ve been with you longer than those two pathetic idiots have!” Lies are spilled to a canvas, painting a scene of blood on a field of acacias. “You’re nothing without me! You—I saved you! Wukong—Sun Wukong, I have been with you for a hundred years, I was there when you were crowned king! I waited for seven years for you to return from achieving your immortality! I have never left your side!” Lies. Deceit. Wukong sees his arms tremble from his peripheral. The Jade Emperor must be getting impatient. “I am your greatest general!”

Wukong himself felt a sense of friendship towards Macaque and it never evolved past that as he was not, in the past, a good person in the yes of humans. He was a trickster and a thief and fought with Heaven out of anger and because he was painted as the villain. In Valleys, Sun Wukong screams and cries for forgiveness in his actions and asks the gods why he was painted as the villain in the end when all he did was be born and learn his master's teachings. What Macaque sees, moments prior to Sun Wukong fighting Heaven, is someone he would die for. That is not what Sun Wukong ever asked for from Macaque and never will. Sun Wukong himself is self-sacrificial to the point where he gains trauma from it in multiple ponts in his life. To say that Wukong didn't care for Macaque is untrue; he says these things to isolate Macaque from himself and have him become his own person because there is a line between loving someone and devoting your entire personality around them.

The wind howls quietly, urging him to leave. “You’ll die.” Wukong’s voice loses its glamour; the sweet peach blossom sprouts a flower layered of tender skin, sweet flesh but the animal’s teeth sink into the pit and spill its poison, an acid that consumes the taste of spring and replace it with pollution; Sun Wukong is a demon well aware of this poison. “You are one of my best friends, my most trusted allies. But you will die. You can die, Liu Er, regardless of whether or not your name is in that damned book—have you gained immortality in the same ways I have? Do you know of the secrets that my master whispered to me when I was younger? Liu Er, do not look at me with those eyes. Do not let this fill you hate. I am not abandoning you. I wish for you to be safe. I want you to leave—survive without me in your life. I am not the best person to be around.”

Sun Wukong's priorities at the time were to fight Heaven, he had no intentions of playing along with Macaque's "feelings" towards him and even advices him to be happy with this development as the Monkey King is well aware of how he is affecting his Marshal without meaning to. Sun Wukong isn't blind to the ways that Macaque is behaving towards him but one must understand that Wukong is the one who is pushing away from Macaque for his own good while Macaque is pulling him back for his own personal gain. He craves something that he doesn't understand as is the traditional sense of "wanting someone to love you and kiss you and tell you they love you right back" is the supposed "normal" way to handle these feelings instead of thinking there is an alternative option to the certain type of love you are experiencing towards someone.

The situation gets worse when you realize that Macaque and Sun Wukong essentially "grew up" together and thus their understanding of love is the same, which is what makes this moment a wake-up-call for both the reader and Macaque:

Liu Er says, in the most broken voice he can muster, “I love you. Don’t leave me.” And Wukong will allow historians to leave these words out, leave out the stoic expression he bares and the way he lifts his head and lulls it to the side. The King says: “I do not know the meaning of the words.” “Don’t leave me.” “May your life be good.” “I love you.” Wukong watches Liu Er become a single blur on the ground, the wound of the drums becoming a loud symphony in his ears. The clouds soon cover his path, a ground of white tainted peach by the setting sun, the King’s eyes singular golden slits as he says, amused, “No, you don’t.”

And even though this is considered their first "falling out", Wukong expresses, once again, his care towards Macaque in a brief moment of vulnerability:

Liu Er… I can’t apologize to you enough. Please don’t come for me.

When talking about ShadowPeach, we must realize the kind of people they are independently and how they affect each other when they cross the line and accept that they were willing to care in a way that is unique to themselves and no one else.

Take a moment to see how they couldn't have gotten together prior to the journey, during the journey nor immediately post-journey.

Sun Wukong is dealing with multiple things while Macaque is single-handedly making the situation more stressing in being too close in the worst way possible: Heaven has a target on Sun Wukong's back and Liu'er jokes about how Wukong will be able to beat them all when the King's tone is serious for once, dropping its glamour and addressing Macaque by his given name; when Macaque meets Sun Wukong again he impersonates him and tries to kill Tripitaka and then acts as the victim for having been abandoned and uses that as an excuse for his actions, further using Wukong's retaliation towards him as ammunition for his future plans; and currently Sun Wukong is dealing with two new apprentices—that of which are mortal and, to an extent, human, meaning he is stressed and tired due to worrying over these two and Macaque uses it as an advantage to get to Sun Wukong instead of talking to him directly.

Their relationship takes more than one apology, however, and it is derived from long lines of miscommunication and misunderstandings between each other and realizing that they are both equals rather than one being "better" than the other.

So how does shadowpeach work?

To put it easily: it's complicated and messy and they still make it work

This is where we come to the themes of the Sun and the Moon but not in the "soulmates" type of matter, but in the way that Macaque needs to realize that he "shines" solely because he stands in front of Wukong while calling him one of the worst people he has ever met in his life and that Wukong needs to realize that trying to be brighter than Macaque does nothing more than fuel the latter's hate towards him. Macaque needs to realize that the Sun is a dying star on the brink of collapsing and Wukong needs to realize that the Moon is harmless unless provoked by outside forces.

Now they talk about this. They discuss this. They talk about the awful way Wukong expressed he was uncomfortable with Macaque's obsession, Macaque comes to the realization he was putting Sun Wukong up on a highly unrealistic pedestal, they both hear each other's side to the stories before telling anyone else as this is between them and no one else. So they talk about it. They talk about their lives outside of each other and connect certain points where they agree or where they disagree. They discuss. They talk. They become friends slowly and gradually as the days go one and they keep talking. Because communication is the key factor; it is what builds and breaks their relationship so much. Wukong yells and Macaque yells back louder; Macaque screams and Wukong snarls at him with far more vigor. It goes on and on and they're imperfect in every way, making the other anxious and panicky because they realize the weight of their words too late after the damage has already been done and they have to work on it for so so long—but they keep talking. The moment Macaque bottles something up, it repeats the cycle and vice versa. Wukong hesitates to tell something to Macaque and it spirals. Because one of them jumps to conclusions and the other is not a psychic.

In terms of their actual relationship, when they work things out and have established a sense of comfort that they can express towards each other: it's not romantic. Nor is it ever fully platonic, either. It's something that's mixed in with the purpose of making each other happy and comfortable. Sun Wukong feels anger and guilt and comfort and peace when he's with Macaque; Macaque feels hatred and resentment and warmth and philia towards Wukong.

Taken from my other fanfiction, you can see where the narrative wants you to know that this isn't a typically kind of dynamic or relationship and how it is unique to them alone:

“You’re disgusting,” Macaque murmurs and that’s what makes Wukong feel as though the war had never happened and Heaven had been indifferent to his existence. Vile, crude, hideous, a monster—it’s not beautiful. Macaque has never called him that. He doesn’t know how to truly feel. Wukong lifts his left hand and runs it through Macaque’s hair, feeling out the small cuts that seemed to have formed over harsh claws sinking into the scalp, a coo of amusement leaving the Sage’s lips when he notices how long it must have taken to undo years of knotted fur in a day; the Great Sage settles his hand at the base of Macaque’s head, grabs a fistful of hair and pulls back slowly, tilting the shadow demon’s head up and up until they’re looking at each other. Red and purple locked in a silent conversation; Wukong’s smile grows feral. Macaque grows quiet, face twisted into a scowl, a subtle layer of red dusting the bridge of his nose.

+

“I’ve forgiven you,” Macaque says in a different voice. It’s sweet and delicate, reminds him of a chorus of wind instruments trying to lull tired children to sleep with their soft singing, and it brings back a memory that makes Wukong grip the handle of the door tightly. “For that day. It’s not ideal and it’s shit to say that when you’ve moved on—clearly—but I’m not here to hurt you. I never was.” “I know you’re not,” Wukong says carefully, his own voice softening. The breeze tugs gently at his fur, a hug that he can’t return no matter how hard he tries. “That’s not the problem.” “Then what is?” Macaque asks. Hopeful. Anxious. Unbearable. “The problem, Macaque, is that you refuse to talk to me as an equal,” Wukong extends a hand and watches as one of the orange leaves lands on his fingertips, turning gold and glowing bright: a message.

+

“Why would I want to trick you?” Wukong points out reasonably. “Precious, do you think I’d waste time and energy trying to convince you into doing something for me? To make a fool out of you?” Wukong’s expression is pure glee as Macaque snaps his head up to glare at him, the shadows hiding his face. There’s a faint glow that dims and darkens, Macaque’s grip on the wine bottles slipping; Wukong reaches out and grabs them, bumping his and Macaque’s shoulders together as he does, the warmth radiating from the shadow demon amplifying. “Maybe I would have, back then. If we were back on Flower Fruit Mountain, sure..” “Wukong,” Macaque breathes, exasperated.

+

“What are you thinking about?” Macaque asks, tilting his head to peer up at Wukong. He hesitates to move when Wukong flicks his gaze to look down at him through lidded eyes, his smile faltering. “Ba and Beng,” Wukong lies. Macaque purses his lips. “Of course,” he says and then, “Of course you are,” and then, “Why wouldn’t you be?” and then he grabs the neck of one of the wine bottles, graceful as he lifts himself; running his fingers over the long thing neck of the glass, the drag of his hanfu rasping against the wooden floor, taking hold of the wine glasses and filling them up with the velvety liquid, the fermented scent filling their senses. It means nothing to them, anymore, but it's sweet and melancholic against the ocean air. It means nothing to them.

And there's so much more.

They don't hate each other, they don't love each other. They find comfort in the other's presence, they embrace each other with the intention of murdering anything that prevents them from finding that same warmth only the other can provide—it's mutual.

It's not the love that could be said about the men and women who fall in love in the movies that they watch together with the kids during their downtimes, where they say "I love you" where it's based on pure romantic intentions; it's not the love between friends either because although they are friends outside of their relationship, Macaque would never confide in Ba the same things he talks to Wukong about and Wukong would never hold Beng's hand with the same intentions he would hold Macaque's hand.

Truly, they are the Sun and the Moon: confusing pieces of shit who live separately from each other but are also an important part of each other's lives, no matter who is bigger or stronger or louder or brasher. They balance each other out, too, for in the parts that Wukong lacks Macaque can easily provide and vice versa. Easily enough it is Wukong who can bring out the worst in Macaque and it's Macaque who can bring out the best in Wukong; they can easily rile and calm the other with the correct choice of words while outsiders will struggle. Sun Wukong has only ever truly allowed Macaque to touch his scars and allows him to see him in a calm, passive state that's melancholic and vulnerable; Macaque only ever allows Wukong to will away the glamour he puts up to cover up his fur and scars and mistakes lined along his body and allows him to make him smile in a way that's genuine and honest.

In conclusion: ShadowPeach Go Brr

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

Derin I finished book one in two days and am mad I have to wait until sometime tomorrow to start book 2

Observations so far:

1. It reminds me a bit of red dwarf if red dwarf was a lot darker and actually had something to say (note: I love red dwarf, it's how my husband and I met but I don't think the OG series had much to say besides jokes)

2. Because I follow you I have recognised your opinions about tech which I feel is neat

3. Similarly the fact that you are Australian is evident I which I also think is neat. Not sure if I would pick up on either if I didn't already know

4. I can't tell if your followers aren't normally into sci-fi and that's why they keep yelling "what the fuck" or if my reading of gay Chinese romance/horror and a really weird and metaphysical and extremely meta Korean webnovel broke my "what the fuck" meter.

5. I have had Aspen Grieves and THEIR crew for two days and if anything bad happens to them in a final way I will cry very ugly tears

6. I love love love how you write! It's so very immersive that it's easy to forget that these aren't real people from the future. This is fiction! And I love them a lot

Anyway thank you

I've seen very little Red Dwarf but "red Dwarf with something to say" is such a funny description I love it.

Yeah I'm not sure why people get so weirded out by my stories either, they're pretty middle-of-the-road scifi. I'm glad you enjoyed the book!

[shanastoryteller]

I was one of the anons that didn’t know what to think when I first saw the Sam/Dean tag on See Something Say Something but now I’m like. You know what fuck it, you write it well. I look forward to every chapter and i apologize for being a hater

LOOOL you are forgiven we have all guzzled hatorade at some point

during my initial foray into supernatural (when i was watching the early seasons in real time) i didn't ship them at all until i read a crack fic as a joke

The incestuous courtship of the antichrist's bride by fleshflutter summary: Sam is trying to become the Antichrist in order to save the world. He has a small army of angels and demons, he has an adoring cult, he has a work of prophecy by Jack Kerouac, and he has Dean. Things are going pretty well until he accidentally signs Dean up as his Beloved Consort, a role that requires sex with the Antichrist on an altar. And that's when things stop going pretty well. Also, the soundtrack to the Apocalypse sucks.

it has no business being as unbelievably good as it is, but also it was my first fleshflutter fic so i didn't know what i was getting myself into. it's one of my favorite fics in any fandom just because the balance of crack and horror and love and humor is so finely done that you just have to go damn. even if i hated everything about this fic i would still love it

but i was like, okay, just because this fic was good doesn't mean i really ship it. like what's wrong with just a freaky little codependent brotherly relationship? the ship mostly just exists because they're hot

then i read Stranger Than Fiction by nyxocity summary: Meta-comedy/drama set immediately post-4x18, The Monster at the End of This Book. Dean can't stop wondering why people would write gay porn about him and Sam. Research takes him to interesting places; re-reading novels for subtext, visiting message boards, and a really freaky place called LiveJournal. What he discovers is a sick fascination with fanfiction, more about gay sex than he ever wanted to know, and an even deeper obsession with understanding why people write this stuff. Meanwhile, they're hunting a mysterious monster that takes the form of a person's truest love to kill them slowly, the lines between fanfiction and reality are starting to break down, and they still have to stop Lilith and save the world.

which reads like it's crack, which is probably why i clicked on it, and isn't really. not only did the author convince sam and dean, they also convinced me. i was like okay fine you make a compelling argument

and when supernatural sucked me in this time a decade later, i was once more like well! yeah wincest is fine but i really am just a sucker for a good fucked up brotherly relationship. no need to be a folgers commercial about it

then i read It's the Blueprint of Your Life by queenklu summary: Sam jerks awake in the middle of the night and everything goes to hell. Well, not literally, though Dean is staring down the barrel of less than a year before his deal comes due. In the midst of dealing (or not dealing) with his impending death, a killer ghost ship, and Bela showing up out of the blue, Dean also has to figure out what’s going on in Sam’s head to make him so twitchy, why he’s suddenly breezing through this case while writing endless notes in a notebook he won’t let Dean see. Damn it, Dean thinks, This is gonna take a lot of chickflick moments.

which is not only one of my very favorite supernatural fics but the one that made me throw up my hands and go fine!! i ship it then!! are you happy now?

pleased and honored to be your gateway drug in these trying times <3

[metalomagnetic]

After seeing about 50 'Dumbledore is evil' and 'everything is Dumbledore's fault' and 'but why didn't Dumbledore did this or the other' posts in a row, I find myself wishing Dumbledore just fucked off to somewhere nice and sunny in '81, early retirement (or is it early if he's already 100?) and washed his hands off magical Britain entirely.

Some of y'all sound like Fudge with your Dumbledore bashing. I wish, at least, Dumbledore would have left when Fudge and that corrupt as hell Ministry did their best to ruin his name and his image.

Pack up his ancient shit and move to a nice beach somewhere, with his pet bird and a huge bag of candy.

This way, my man Voldemort could have won in like five minutes, and Harry would be dead, Voldemort would rule supreme, Bella would keep being the queen she is, and my little Voldemort shaped heart would be happy.

But no, Dumbledore stayed, orchestrated Voldemort's downfall by giving Harry step by step instructions, gave up his own life in the process, made sure Harry would keep his, because apparently that's what 'evil men' do instead of retiring in comfort.

Not only Harry wouldn't have survived without Dumbledore, but he most likely wouldn't even exist without Dumbledore. Because, you know, this evil man is also the one that took down another dark lord back in the day; if Grindelwald would have won, there would be no Lily, most likely. Thus no Harry.

But yes, go get your 'Dumbledore is evil' badges- I hear Fudge and Umbridge are leaders of the hate club, I'm sure they'll receive new followers with open arms. Draco is probably the secretary, because he hates Dumbledore, too, and he likes making badges.

Also, can someone explain to me how Dumbledore, the only gay man in canon, became the fandom's resident homophobe? That's just weird, my friends. Very weird, to say the least. It gets even nastier when you say he 'groomed' students. That's an awful thing to throw around about a gay dude, you know?

There are so many reasons one can dislike Dumbledore for, but you do have the option to not like a flawed character without turning them into a ridiculous caricature of themselves.

P.S: I am not talking about fics. Write your fics and your characters however you want, whatever makes you happy. Your fic is your domain, and you do whatever you want in there, hopefully with no asshole to attack you in the comments. Same with reading- read what you want, bashing or no bashing. Have the best of fun!

I am talking about these 'meta' type posts on social media, tagged with "Albus Dumbledore", where they act as if canon Dumbledore was legit evil, incompetent or homophobic.

[angstandhappiness]

AUGH

sorry if i seem way too obsessed about the slightly one-sided nature of farcille i eat that shit up when it's actually equally requited but one side feels like they're not as important

[lurkingshan]

Hey Shan!! IDK if you're planning to do a BL wrap up or superlatives or anything like that this year so this question might be a bit too early but um...what has been a few of your favorite first watches for 2024 bls?

Hi Eboni! This is actually pretty good timing for a list because most of the shows that will end within 2024 are already over! The only two I could see maybe making my list that have not ended yet are Love is Like a Poison (Japan) and Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (China), so I'll mention them here (fingers crossed they end well and stay favs).

That said, here are my favorite completed BLs of 2024 (alpha order)!

At 25:00 in Akasaka (Japan, Gaga)

Two actors who first met in college are cast in a bl together, old feelings resurface, and the lines between their professional and private lives start to blur. This show is super beautiful and moody.

Cooking Crush (Thailand, YouTube or WeTV for uncut)

Ten and Prem are my favorite of OffGun's many couples. Ten is a med student with food issues who wants to learn how to cook, and Prem is a chef in training. Their romance is super sweet and I also really like the side couple and friend groups in this one.

Cherry Magic Thailand (Thailand, YouTube or Viu, requires VPN)

I still can't believe this show happened. How on earth did GMMTV manage to make a superior version of Cherry Magic?? Tay Tawan had a lot to do with it, along with a very smart adaptation. It's so sweet and funny and perfect (if you just pretend ep 8 doesn't exist).

City of Stars (Thailand, iQIYI)

I was surprised by how much I liked this charming little Thai pulp. It had an interesting story with strong writing and the pair was very good together. More people should watch it!

I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama (Japan, Gaga)

This is a short and sweet and note perfect BL comedy about two actors falling for each other while making a BL. Loaded with meta jokes about the industry and stan culture and very loving about it.

Knock Knock Boys (Thailand, Gaga)

I am obsessed with this excellent Thai BL that not nearly enough people watched. Two couples, both compelling and sexy and fun, and amazing friendship dynamics. I want everyone to watch it!

Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo (S Korea, iQIYI)

My top BL of the year. It's a second chance romance, you see the characters both in high school and later as adults and I don't really want to spoil anything else about it. It's beautiful, the characters are so compelling, and the story is masterfully told.

Love for Love's Sake (S Korea, iQIYI)

This one is special and quite unique, and I also don't want to spoil much about it! It begins with a basic isekai set up that then goes to some unexpected places. Really, really beautiful show.

Love Sea (Thailand, iQIYI)

Definitely my favorite spicy romance of the year. I really loved a lot about the story for this one, in particular the class dynamics that defined the characters and their relationship, and Mahasamut (played by Fort) is on my list of favorite drama characters this year.

Marahuyo Project (Philippines, YouTube)

We didn't get much from the Philippines this year, but they did drop one absolute banger in this show about a fierce and proud gay kid who gets booted out of school in Manila and sent to live with his grandma and mother on a small island. He makes friends and enemies and starts an LGBTQ+ club, and falls in love along the way.

Mr Mitsuya's Planned Feeding (Japan, fansub)

An excellent age gap romance about a young editor and the chef who writes for his magazine making food together and falling in love. Lots of fun side characters, too. I loved every minute of this show.

Perfect Propose (Japan, Gaga)

Two old friends meet when one of them is in need of housing and one is on the verge of a nervous breakdown from a soul-sucking corporate job, and help each other heal. This one is short and sweet.

Ossan's Love Returns (Japan, Gaga)

This one is technically a sequel, but you can enjoy it without having seen the original (and might like it better that way, tbh). One of the funniest shows of the year and featuring a main couple that is a personal fav and are now on my ride or die list.

Takara's Treasure (Japan, Gaga)

This one is a simple story but so, so sweet. A cute little bean follows his mysterious idol to university and joins the hiking club to get to know him better. They get to know each other slowly and fall in love.

Unknown (Taiwan, Viki)

ALMOST my favorite bl of the year, but we had a few issues on the back end. Despite that, I still loved it a whole lot. A family drama and a love story about two chosen brothers whose relationship changes over time. Easily the best BL Taiwan made this year.

Looking at this list, I am realizing how absolutely invaluable my Gaga and iQIYI subscriptions have become; it's where nearly all my favorite BL is airing.

[pretentious-basterd]

WWDITS FINALE thoughts (that nobody asked for)

so that was an end of an era. binge-watching all the seasons of this funny little vampire show got me through quite a depressing time of my life this year so i will forever be grateful for that.

there is this ongoing argument whether it was queerbaiting or shipbaiting and the only consensus is over the fact that the fans (or at least a portion of them who possess media literacy) were baited.

show creators will bend over backwards trying to avoid a show being accused of fan-service, like it is a bad thing, though this begs the question then what is the alternative of fan-service ? a hindrance-to-haters ? anyway, wwdits has managed to take the secret third path and pissed off the fans, or at least the ones who cared about character development and writing.

since the past few months i have been frothing in the mouth for canon nandermo so of course the ending did not satisfy me but unfortunately that was not even the worst part of the finale, and also of the final season overall.

guillermo's journey to find himself is over and he got nothing out of it and he is back in that house doing what nandor wants

nandor inexplicably okay with guillermo leaving felt so out of character after everything (the one guillermo did for the camera)

no (concluding) character arcs for nadja and laszlo

laszlo raising colin robinson storyline got no closure

another guidor jumpscare

all of a sudden the guide is a republican (i understand it is supposed to be a joke but it is not a very funny one)

nadja doll tossed aside

monster bride arc dropped in two minutes

no explanation for why colin robinson beat guillermo all of a sudden (i was sure that was building upto something)

what happened to nandor'a small djinn lamp?

however i do not want to get too parasocial about a tv show because in true fashion of everything in life you don't always get whatever you want and especially not in the way you want it. not everything ends in a neatly wrapped bow tie. life goes on and you do move on, as one does.

i will end my rant with a big thank you to the showrunners and the writers for creating a show with such great earlier seasons that the fans are having these strong emotional reactions about the ending (they did biff the landing and making meta jokes about it doesn't erase that). another big thanks especially to kayvan novak and harvey guillen for acting and portraying the characters in the way they did (they know what they did with all those yearning glances and made it as gay as possible) in spite of the writing that never supported their vision (even though they keep backtracking in s6 interviews for obvious reasons lmao) !!

[olderthannetfic]

oh MAN, im genuinely at the edge of a mental breakdown whenever the femslash numbers discourse resurfaces, like at this point it just elevates my blood pressure, i dig my nails into my thigh, and i go to one of my trusty fandom friends to complain about other people's complaints. i ship pretty much across the board without preference for gender combo, altho by virtue of my favourite character archetype niches being occupied by men, i end up with comparatively mostly m/m and m/f with only the occasional f/f. almost all of these end up being rarepairs with at least one supporting or minor character that are eclipsed by whatever juggernaut ship the fandom prefers but never compels me. im used to looking into a ship tag and come up with less than 100 works, most of the times it's less than 50. does this annoy me on the odd occasion, be it because i think X/Y is so much more cooler than uh, A/B that the fandom is obsessed with? sure, but i see no reason to rain on people's parade - i just mute tags and mentions and seethe in silence or private DMs. i write for my unpopular rarepairs, i reblog stuff posted in tags and cheer in my own tags, i chat with people who are also into it, and get overjoyed whenever there's a new fic in the AO3 tag (or elsewhere) that I can read. to me, the femslash situation feels very similar - you like the ship between two blorbos, there's enough fan made stuff for them to fit in the shell of a hazelnut, and 80% of the fandom will swoon over the two people who you personally couldn't give two fucks about even if someone paid you. and shoutout to the people who DO make the fan stuff, the art, the fic, the meta, the discord servers, who request and put up prompts in fic exchanges to inspire others... but by god, if the whiners aren't the ones who dominate the conversation, which i wouldn't mind as much if they'd do ANYTHING besides whine. no, they will scream and shout about how the "yaoi empire" needs to be taken down (how about you just move to FFN? Wattpad?), but then it's either obnoxious nitpicky fucks who haven't posted a single fic in their entire miserable life, or it's m/m shippers who are Not Like The Other Fujoshis and got, uh, i dont fuckin know, 30 works for hockey RPF and 10 for two guys from The Terror who canonically interacted like two times under their belt while they mostly blog about the guys from Interview with the Vampire. they want God, everyone's mother and all the slash shippers on Hedy Lamarr's world wide web to prioritise femslash but don't practise as they fucking preach, tear the work of the people who DO indulgently write about gay women, and think they're oppressed because no one will write exactly what they want. the code for AO3 is for free - unionise along with your fellow femslash enthusiasts, beat the drums really loud, open those google docs, and get some shit started! granted, you're unpleasant cunts and will probably go "actually, no boys allowed in here! get your boy cooties away from this forever!!!! if you like men fucking, go back to ao3!" which will inevitably drive people who like f/f as well as m/m away, so you might be doomed to fail but in the words of that adorable little kitten poster: hang in there!

--

[relaxxattack]

Piggybacking off the last anon, what is it you like about Jane so much? I find my feelings on her kind of mixed but I lean towards positive.

okay i haven’t read act six in probably like 5 years so bear with me here. *cracks knuckles*

jane is sooo so interesting and it’s really a shame people miss like everything fun about her.

pre-scratch she used her detective work to literally succeed at tearing down the crocker cooperation, to the point that HIC has to fucking abandon ship and head into another universe to have another shot at her evil empire. pre-scratch jane is also fucking hilarious! if you didnt enjoy her antics with john as nannasprite you must just have no heart

meanwhile HIC breaches a new universe, and her FIRST fucking order of business is to NEUTRALIZE JANE CROCKER because of how goddamn detrimental she was to HIC’s plans the first time around.

not ONLY does HIC pump subliminal messaging and brainwashing into nearly every aspect of jane’s life, she also tries to straight up mind control her basically whenever possible! she ALSO sends assassination attempts after jane 24/7! (people will seriously try to say that jane lived a safe normal life… as if she wasn’t almost killed by walking into her backyard.) this is because HIC is fucking scared of jane, as she very well should be!

jane is also NOT a boring weepy annoying crybaby like everyone and their mother complains about. jane is literally the most fucking supportive friend and emotion-repressing dumbass you could ever hope to meet. jane combines john’s emotional repression and jade’s intentional cheerfulness together into one of the most fucked up cases of emotional repression in the whole comic

act 6 suffers from a LOT of shitty writing choices, but it’s not jane’s fault the whole act turns into a soap opera— and she’s ALSO not the only one who acts all soap-opera-y either! literally all of the alpha kids suffer from this, people just like jane the least so they project it all onto her. despite the fact that she did her very fucking best to NEVER talk about her feelings, to the point where she ONLY started telling people about shit when she was mind-controlled or took mind altering substances to make her do so! and you can say “ohhh that’s stupid she shouldn’t repress things in the first place how dumb” but, one she’s sixteen, and two, everyone eats that shit up when it comes from like. literally any other character.

people (cough hs2 writers) act like she would actually be “pushy” with a relationship on jake— as if she wasn’t literally the one who helped him make the decision to explore dating dirk?? because she thought it was the right thing to do???

jane is incredibly thoughtful and mature and people really throw all of those traits out of the window with preference for a version of the story where she Comes Inbetween Their Fave Gay Pairing as if she wasn’t, again, the one who got them together. jane is also extremely interesting in terms of queerness; she’s got the makings of a really interesting arc, not to mention she’s the only human girl that dresses mainly masc! there’s a lot there that people just don’t care to explore.

people just have less patience for the prospit kids in general. not to mention homestuck fans love to be misogynistic and berate jane for stuff they love the men doing, or claim she’s coming between them when she’s not, etc etc. and then because no one was writing fun meta posts about her, nobody ever rereads the comic to grab little scenes or lines to expand the online discussion about her! and then because there’s no discussion about her, people assume she’s boring and don’t go looking for bits to start discussing, which cycles on and on forever until we have the ripple effects we see of that misogyny today. which mostly consists of, “oh i hate jane because she was a villain is hs2”, or, “i know hs2 isn’t canon but i still don’t care for jane because she doesn’t do anything that interests me.” (and she’s only not interesting because of the cycle i mentioned before causing NO ONE to have meta discussion about her).

idk, it’s been a while since ive read so i could be talking out my ass but that’s what i’ve got.

TL;DR: jane is fucking COOL, she just suffers from intentional fandom ignorance. and she’s also a canonically hot, fat, masc woman, so i don’t know what else you could possibly want.

[vladdyissues]

How do you feel about all this Sam x Danny (knowing we literally ship Vlad and Danny), I feel like if Sam finds out about a pompous relationship he would try to take Danny off Vlad's hands 😭 (I was thinking about a fanfic of that style, what do you think?)

(About the ship) I'd probably feel a lot more positive about Amethyst Ocean if Sam's character had been written a little better and their relationship wasn't bristling with so many red flags and contrary, counterintuitive moments. Like in S3E09, when Danny dreams of kissing Sam, wakes up screaming, and literally calls it "a nightmare". This is supposed to be the endgame relationship of the entire series? Come on, Butch.

But I don't hate AO. I tolerate it in canon and pretty much ignore it in fandom. Ship and let ship ✌ But when it comes to fanfic, it's all too easy to end up unfairly bashing the "unwanted" character in the love triangle, especially if the author already doesn't like the character.

Character bashing is the expression of hostility towards a character by fans. Bashing occurs in a wide variety of fandom activities and fanworks, such as fanfiction and meta posts, and takes many forms. It may be done by demonizing a character, referring to them with derogatory terms, or making them the subject of deathfics or spitefics. Discussion of character bashing is often the subject of drama, as fans may take personal offense at what they perceive as undeserved bashing. Fanlore, Character Bashing

I wrote a few fics of this nature long ago, and while they might have been mildly funny on the surface, they were really quite boring and out of character. Crackfic, basically. I kind of cringe just thinking about them because they fall under the fandom faux pas of "annoying female character with the canon romantic connection getting in the way of my beloved non-canon m/m ship".

This isn't to say you shouldn't write a fanfic about a shocked or jealous Sam trying to break up Danny and Vlad's relationship, but I think it should be handled with care—at least if you're trying to write Sam realistically or have a story with a semisweet or bittersweet ending. If you want to go the toxic, twisted, dark route—which is quite intriguing, to be honest—all that matters is making sure Sam doesn't turn into a parody or a punching bag. She's got to be believable, human, and at least somewhat true to her character.

Like, we know she loves Danny. (Unless she's planning on getting revenge, she isn't going to intentionally hurt him.) Her heart is broken, possibly her dreams, too. She's worried for him. She doesn't trust that Vlad hasn't brainwashed Danny or is manipulating him somehow. Why didn't Danny even tell her he liked Vlad, or that they had made peace with each other? Was Danny so repulsed by the thought of dating her that Vlad looked like a better option? Does she think she's responsible for Danny realizing he's gay or bi? Oof.

These are some of the questions I'd be asking myself before I even started writing. Of course, you're welcome to ignore me and proceed with your own concepts if you've already decided on how you want to write your fic. Whatever you decide to do, do it with all your spirit!