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#(but there are canonically gay characters and the creator is super supportive of it)
pearwaldorf · 25 days
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I have been trying to write this on and off for a while. I figure the second anniversary of the show is as fine an occasion as any to shove it out into the world. It is not everything I want to say about it, but I think the important bits are there.
It is a human impulse to be seen. To be told, through art, you are not alone. It is universal, but of special importance to people who are not well-represented in media (i.e. everybody who isn’t cis, white, able-bodied, skinny, and conventionally attractive).   
This show speaks to me as a queer person who figured things out later than most of my peers. (Not quite as late as Ed and Stede but not terribly far off either.) It’s not super common to see queer media address this, and I didn’t realize how much I needed that reassurance until I got it. That it’s okay to find these things any time in your life. To be told “A queer is never late, they’re always fashionably on-time.” 
They’re not my first canon queer ship. But they are the first ones where I knew it was true from the get-go. Multiple people assured me this was the case. And yet, I still didn’t believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes. This experience is not unusual for fans around my age.  
After I finished up season one, I laid in bed and cried. It’s not something I thought would affect me so much, but it feels like a weight I’d carried so long I didn’t realize it wasn’t supposed to be part of me is gone.
One of the reasons people unfamiliar with the fandom seem to think it’s absolutely crazy (which some of it is, to be fair, but every fandom has that) is the way fans of the show get extremely super intense about it. It took me a few weeks to realize this is a trauma response. I’m not even sure “trauma” is the right word. It doesn’t interfere with my day to day function, but it lasted for years. Decades. So it was definitely something that fucked me up. And in the way you can only start to see something as you’re moving past it, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get my head around this. (I don’t know if I have anything to say about it yet. Maybe I need more time to sit with it.)
I know this sounds contrary, but I’m really glad David Jenkins does not come from fandom. Sometimes it’s good to know where a line is, and others it’s better to not know there’s a line at all. And this is, sad to say, remarkable to somebody who has had to deal with this for so long. With so many writers and showrunners aware of the line, and getting right up next to it, but never crossing it.
Imagine doing a show with a queer romance and not understanding why this was received with such emotion and fervor, because it’s just two people in love right? What blissful ignorance that this needed to be explained to him! And then he listened to people’s experiences with queerbaiting, and went “Oh my god you thought I was going to do WHAT?” And then you go “Huh. That is really fucked up.” 
The problem with being told something enough, even though you know it’s wrong, is you start to believe it regardless. All the excuses and hedging. It’s so very difficult to do they tell us, when we hear from queer creators how they had fight tooth and nail to make it as gay as it already was. 
And then comes Jenks, just yeeting it out there: majority queer and (not and/or. and) POC cast, an openly non-binary person playing an openly non-binary character. The ability to not have to make one queer (and/or) POC character speak for everybody, so you can inject a tiny bit of nuance into the conversation. The way you can tell more kinds of stories, like the one where the smol angry internalized homophobe comes into his own with the support of a queer community, even though he was a giant fucking asshole to them before.
So many people were like “You can just DO that? It’s really that easy?” And wasn’t that a fucking Situation, to have that curtain pulled aside. What next? Majority POC casts with stories about POC written by POC? Absolute madness. (Please please watch The Brothers Sun on Netflix. It’s so fucking good.) 
And people will scoff and say “Of course a cishet(?) white man would be able to get this pushed through.” But do they usually? The thing I don’t think people understand about allies is they use their privilege to wedge the door open. You still have to do the work to get through, but at least you have a place to start. And it really fucking matters.
The press keeps trying to tell me The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is the OFMD substitute we need while we float in the gravy basket. I’m sure it’s a perfectly fine show, but I don’t know who has watched OFMD and decided the itch we needed scratched was anachronistic historical comedy.
I want stories written by people that reflect their lived experiences, with actors and crew committed to bringing that to life. And I would like streamers and studios to commit to giving them a chance, and marketing them properly so people know they exist. 
You can keep people satisficed with scraps for only so long. At some point, somebody is going to give them a whole seven course dinner and people will wonder why they’ve been putting up with starving this entire time.
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victimsofyaoipoll · 6 months
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Round 4
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Amy Rose
WAUGH okay so basically like everyone villainizes her when shipping Sonic with any other character (and 99% of the time its Amy being villainized against a m/m ship ://) but yeah Amy canonically has a "crush" on Sonic and stuff (which is weird in its self cuz age gaps and things but creators smh) and anyways any time people write Sonic in a relationship with other characters they always make her super upset and mad that Sonic isn't dating her etc etc and basically make her a pouting 12 year old because her super hero crush doesn't date her instead of writing her as a supportive best friend to sonic WHICH SHE SHOULD BE WRITTEN AS !!!! and uh yeah if you couldn't tell this makes me so upset because amy is such a good character people should stop ruining her
Even outside of yaoi, she is the most hated character in the FRANCHISE. THERE ARE ENTIRE WEBSITES DEDICATED TO HATING ON HER. HER MERE EXISTANCE CREATES SHIP WARS. IT IS HELL. EVEN THE OFFICIAL TWITTER ACCOUNT AND THE ARCHIE COMICS HATED ON HER IN THE PAST.
Not only is she a incredibly serious victim of yaoi, she is bashed in every fic where Sonic is paired with someone other than her. And when she is paired with someone other that Sonic, Sonic is bashed. And when she is paired with Sonic, other characters commonly paired with Sonic are bashed. It is a chain reaction of madness. Even outside of shipping, she is one of the most hated characters in the fandom. She was flanderized to ridiculous amounts. Even the official Sonic twitter used to mock her. Even official gaming news sites mock her, with a particularly horrible case being when TheGamer outright said Sonic being paired with TAILS is better than Sonic being paired with Amy. The amount of hate this character has attracted is incredibly large. There are entire websites dedicated to hating her.
Sakura Haruno
Her husband is gay and her author doesn't know how to write women. So many people say she's the worst but she. DESERVES. BETTER!!! Save her from this franchise.
My baby girl my bestie my best friend. She committed the crime of um being written by kishimoto who both doesn’t know how to write women and somehow writes men in the gayest way possible specifically naruto and sasuke. Like the thing is naruto and sasuke ARE gay and also she gets so much hate for the crime of kishimoto writing her one dimensionally in love with sasuke. I know her personally she is a butch lesbian to me just trust me she’s in love with Ino and has a lesbian thing going on with Karin okay just trust me. My everything. She needs to divorce the loveless lavender marriage she’s in 
What is there to say, even? The OG Threat to my 90s anime brain, the only woman I've ever hated with such a passion she made me turn away from the color pink. I used to write fics with my friend where she got left behind on purpose so our OCs could join the Naruto and Sasuke team instead. I loathed this bitch until I was 16 and realized the author simply couldnt write women and decided it was time to make peace with Sakura. It is not her fault she's vaguely written and obsessive over Sasuke. She deserves better. Sasuke and Naruto still should be together and Sakura shouldnt be with Sasuke but I no longer believe this because I hate Sakura, it is because I love her. She deserves a spouse who will actually put in the time to treat her like the hero she is.
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alexissara · 2 months
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Top 11 Ships of 2023
Time for a typical and normal numbered top 11 list, the classic and well known format, top 11, which everyone uses and everyone loves garnering much SEO so that I may boost myself. This standard top 11 of the year list which everyone does annually really is covering ships I really loved this year. I love love and therefore love when romance is in things I watch and I love imaging relationships between characters. While I am not a super active fanfic writer or reader I enjoy fan art and thinking about dynamics and sometimes writing or reading. This year had a ton of girls I thought should kiss so without further ado let's get into it.
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Sulleta and Chuchu [Gundam: The Witch From Mecury]
Opening with a Rare Pair but I am here to wave my Sulleta and Chuchu flag. While all my ships are polyam and open to them dating lots of other women if I had to pick a pair for either women it be them together. Unlike their other relationships this is a true ride of die pair. Chuchu and Sulletta always have each others backs even when their hurt by people they love and trust. Their both mech pilots and can fight together. Their adorable and sweet and I can see them blowing up their enemies together and wish we had more of it in the show.
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Whisper and Tangle [Sonic IDW]
Pictured above is not an edit but an actual panel from Sonic IDW. While the creators have fairly clearly said that Sega simply will not allow them to make any romance canon straight or gay including for original characters these two are clearly being written as a couple and everyone has simply agreed that they are gay and hoping that fan pressure will eventually force Segas hands. These hero besties are opposites attracts goodness one is silent and keeps her feelings inside the other is out there and emotional but both kick ass together and support each other. These furries are probably as close to canon romance sonic is gonna get for the foreseeable future and their just so cute I'll never get over them.
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Edelgard Polycule
While not a new ship or a ship with new offical content at all in 2023 outside of Edelgard talking about some of her girlfriends in Emblem ring conversations in Engage but I made new content, a lot of it for this ship in 2023 so it be lying to say it wasn't a top ship, probably the top ship given I ya know made fan content for it. Edelgard deserves all the girlfriends in the world and I am utterly giddy when I think about Edelgard and her big group of GFs. I feel similarly about many FE women but none as strongly as Lady Edelgard [Monica moment]. Edelgard does so much to make a better future for everyone and I think at the end of it, she should be loved every second of the rest of her life. I'm even doing like a private Three Houses roleplay thing for our combined ideal route for the game and crafting our own definitive version of the story.
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HarlIvy [Harley Quinn Animated, DC]
Harlivy forever! Harlivy is for sure one of my oldest ships but it's also a ship that had a fucking load of amazing new stuff this year. While I have not read the comics proper we had a main line Harley Quinn comic where they said that a multiversal truth about Harley is that she has an Ivy and a fucked up evil Harley was redeemed by finding her fucked up evil Ivy with the help of main Harley. We had the utterly adorable DC Pride comic featuring them basically adopting Crash another lesbian character. Then we had a new season of Harley Quinn animated that while it started rough I think had a good purpose in establishing what the creators believe is the heart of Harley and Ivy and it's something I agree with so ya know awesome. Harley and Ivy complete each other and while I see them as being polyam I think their the core part of their relationship, nesting bitches for life. Their a couple I'd love to write some fics for and in general just a dynamic I really truly love a lot. Harley and Ivy are complicated and messy gals and seeing them figure their shit out together is great.
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Jala/Tyler/Diya [Thirsty Suitors]
I want this messy trio of exes to be a sexy little triad. Jala and Tyler have a very messy history but to me I think the answer is clear on why Jala is like this, which is that she will never be happy with just one partner, she's not meant for monogamy and I think when her and Tyler have healed more and Jala realizes this about herself, they can have a talk and like both actually have a healthy polyam relationship rather than a toxic monogamous relationship. That's where Diya comes in she was an asshole and a bully but she's grown and she is a proud out lesbian now and helps take care of the community something Tyler cares about and she's still into Jala and i think them growing into a cute little throuple would be so good and I wanna see them kiss and I need it actually, it's canon according to me.
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Pink Sugar Polycule [Pink Sugar]
This polycule is end game but I've been sold on them from go. These four sexy lesbians are just all such compelling characters, I want to know more about all of them, their lives when they were human, their lives in Purgatory, and see them thrive together as a little quad of deliciously darling dykes. These are some of my favorite characters ever written and the story is still in it's early days. I imagine in years to follow they will remain a favorite ship. They all feel very different but all feel like a realistic group of people to be friends and be lovers. Every dynamic between them works and they suit each other every way around. Any of them would be an amazing couple but all together their an even better polycule.
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Juri and Chun-li [Street Fighter]
Another classic Alexis Sara ship that's got some new spice this year. The release of Street Fighter 6 had a little bit more Juri and Chun-li for us, Juri is still obsessed at the very least. Then we got a few extra tidbits in the You Got This Juri comics. Juri is this messy little disaster Gremlin and Chun-li is a mostly has it together sweet now adoptive mother. I think Juri would add some fun to Chun-lis life and Chun-li would help her get her shit together. I think both of them could help them be morally better people Juri would de-cop Chun-li and Chun-li would help her like not take obviously dubious hit jobs. Their just kinda perfect for each other ya know.
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Sailorcule [Sailor Moon]
This is another one that technically had "no new content" like I didn't watch the new movie, I've been waiting for an offical release and it's not happened so here I am but what I did really get into this year was enjoying the inner senshi as a big polycule. I always enjoyed HaruMichi and quickly enjoyed HaruMichiSetsuna but kinda just shipping all the girls together while something on paper was like sure I do that evolved from a sure thing to something I actively really enjoy. A lot of that is thanks to yamino's amazing fan art and my own Magical Girl OCs who are pretty heavily inspired by Sailor Moon so I started to see them in the dynamics between the girls.
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Shadowheart and Nocturne [Baldur's Gate 3]
One of this years totally new ships and one I truly adore and wish was more popular was Shadowheart X Nocturne. These two have probably my favorite tropey ship dynamic of them all Childhood friends to lovers. I enjoy all sorts of dynamics but when I am roleplaying, when I am looking at my most beloved ships, I am thinking wouldn't it be cute if they knew each other when they were younger? Nocturne and Shadowheart are so loaded with good little spice in their childhood friends to lovers arc too though. Like Shadowheart and Nocturne both picked their chosen names together. Shadowheart would forget everything with memories being erased and Nocturne would tell her everything and still love her every time. Even after forgetting her again in the most recent events Nocturne remains loyal to her to the point where if Shadowheart becomes a Selunite the sworn enemy of Shar Nocturne despite not having the strength to leave the faith still acts as an inside woman to help Shadowheart evade assassins from Shar. I think the two should get married and live happily ever after and my Tav can marry them both too, I don't see why not and they can both fuck Alyin and Isobel while we're at it. I just want them to be happy together. Outside of Three Houses stuff this is the ship I am most compelled to write fics for simply because no one else is shipping them and I think it's so fucking juicy and why won't anyone sit down with me and eat some of this delicious juicy fruits.
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Rae Clair [I'm In Love With The Villainess]
MISSSS CLAIR! Rae's obsession with Clair might frustrate me a bit in the light novel version but in every other version I only find it utterly endearing. I love a good obsession, I love when someone is like on their mind so often and they live for them and it's just ahh so yummy. I think what Rae brings to Clair is really nice for Clair too. Clair feels abandoned constantly, she's lonely and trying to fit a model of a type of person that she's been told she's supposed to be. Rae helps her break those norms, makes her feel not alone, makes her realize she wants to help people. Their really adorable and I do look forward to picking up more of the audiobooks of the light novels and seeing how their relationships evolve along with keeping up with the manga as it releases in English volumes. Their really good and I want to engage them in every medium I can.
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Nomoto X Kasuga [She Loves To Cook And She Loves To Eat]
I mean I couldn't not put these two on this list, I want them to kiss and have a house and get married and be together forever. This one has no messy layers, there isn't really the juice but what they have is the true to life, down to it's core, amazing sweetness. It's like a wonderful ice cream dish lovingly crafted down to the last delightfully delicate detail. They just are so good together, they make each other happy, they have a really real feeling healthy slowly building relationship. They both bring out the best in each other and they both always have a good time together. It's really perfect and I think it just feels so honest and sweet and like ya know as a lesbian I feel really seen by them, their relationship, them as characters and the whole story. Nothing is quite as wonderful as She Loves To COok and She Loves To Eat.
If you want to help me enjoy more art then consider checking out my Patreon or Ko-fi .and giving me a little bit of cash so I can do more of this kind of writing but also like make lots of my own art, art is hard to make and costs money and like maintain my chronically ill and trans body also takes money so anything helps, thank you.
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Some people have pointed out you can extremely easily pick the lesbian flag out the leaked howleens hair. While this is probably a delightful coincidence I’m wondering how you feel about howleen being the lesbian rep instead of clawdeen? Would it be a nice treat or a cop out?
You super can! Her hair looks like the sunset flag just upside down.
I want GOOD queer rep in Monster High! I want it almost as much as I want diverse body types. I want it so badly. I’ve DUG deep and unearthed some some queer rep crumbs. Zomby Gaga was technically our first Bisexual Doll, Greta Gremlin is technically our first trans doll with Frankie being the second, Neighthan & Valentine we’re both intended and coded to be gay men written by a gay man. But where or… should I say were was our lesbian rep? Garrett proudly declared Clawdeen as a Lesbian and because he was the creator most fans took his word as law… but this didn’t feel like a victory to me, it felt hollow. It bothered me & I couldn’t figure out why, after being called Lesbophobic by a dozen people on Twitter for daring to disagree with Father Monster it hit me! Years prior Garrett was asked outright if he wrote Clawdeen to be a lesbian & he said it was never intended her to be that way but he supports people who see her as gay. NOW fast forward like 2-3 years? Garrett left Mattel, he was not fired he left. Garrett declares Clawdeen as a Lesbian. The timing is important because not only did this come after admitting she was never written to be a lesbian, he said it years after he left Mattel and no longer had any influence on Monster High, Clawdeen was no longer his character. His word now means nothing. This? Was messy and unfair to lesbians who deserve to have good rep! Not just a sloppy afterthought tagged on later. Mattel clearly did not agree & hammered it home in G3 that Clawdeen’s hobby is “flirting with boys” and in the live action movie Deuce is crushing on her and the feeling is mutual. This had to hurt lesbians who see themselves in her and that? Was cruel. (I’m keeping my fingers crossed for Bisexual Clawdeen).
Now! I told you that story to tell you this story: Howleen has never had a canon love interest, she is also 14, these two things are related because in the episode Fierce Crush there is some type of full moon event going on that is making all of the werewolves lovey-dovey. (It’s probably mating season, but this is a kids show.) it's the first full moon of the lunar leap year.
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There werewolves are giving their lunas a token of their love, This Crescent Moon High boy gives his ghoul his class ring.
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Clawd gives Draculaura his varsity jacket. (someone please draw her absolutely swimming in that jacket pls)
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Dee O'Gee gives his luna his... flea collar... how sweet of him...?
and Clawdeen tells Howleen not to fall into that “I gotta get a boyfriend” trap because she is too young. Howleen takes this as great personal offensive & says she’s not in a manner very fitting of someone whose obviously not mature enough to be dating yet. On cue Romulus helps Howleen with her stuck locker & she makes goo goo eyes at him, Clawdeen instantly tries to curb stomp that by gently reminding Howleen that Romulus used to puppy-sit her.
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She tells her friend Lothar who...is someone we have never seen before this moment and we will never see again... That she "Really Likes" Romulus. As her friend, he tries to give her good advice and the advice he gives her IS good advice but she messes up and sets Romulus on fire.
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But her attempts to impress Romulus are all in vain because apparently he's into.... The Create A Monster Wolf girl!?!?
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Sure... Why not?
Anyways Howleen is kinda bummed by this and Lothar comforts her telling her that "If he can't see how furrific you are? then it's his loss"
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Which is once again, really good advice. Lothar is pretty wise for someone we've never met before and we will never see again... Pity, we could have used a wise chubby little brother troll doll.
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But then oh no! he likes Howleen! but she only see's him as a friend and the episode ends with narration from Frankie that "Romance can be pretty tricky sometimes. For every Monster who wont notice you, There's someone behind you, you're not noticing and someone right behind them" implying this slug girl has a crush on Lothar. WTF she's cute too! give us slug girl little sister doll!
Now NORMALLY I would say this is Howleen expressing an attraction to boys. That's usually my M.O. of ringing that cow bell that she's into boys and that automatically rules out Lesbian but still keeps the door open for her being Sapphic And OH BOY! I’m gonna eat my own words here but part of being being emotionally mature is admitting when your wrong and I don't think this attraction to Romulus is genuine. I think she is just trying to spite Clawdeen which is her usual M.O., Seem more mature than she is and she's probably feeling pressure from this lunar new year thing, I don't think she's actually into Romulus considering It has never come up before this episode and it never comes up again.
And I'm glad it never comes up again because it's fuckin' gross. He's way too old for her and I mean that in a serious way not in my usual "Romulus is absolutely a 45yr old grown ass man" way. He's gigantic and more than likely a High School Senior or even a Super Senior which puts him around 18yrs old and I know 4 years might not seem like much the older we get but that is a huge maturity gap for teenagers and totally inappropriate and possibly illegal I'm not really sure.
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SO! Since that is really the only time we see her show an attraction to boys and no, I'm not counting her kissing the eyeball boy in "Why do Ghouls fall in love" that was her under the influence of Cupid's love spell and not real. it doesn't seem like she's into boys, but once she becomes friends with Twyla? they are never apart! and that is freshman shorthand for "I like You" could I be reaching? could be, maybe, it's possible... I'm not a fan of "they're dating just because they hang out a lot" but Twyla is literally the only person she trusts whose not family.
However, this is all circumstantial evidence, she's 14 and may not be into anyone! despite her protests she is still a baby.
But I don't think her being gay would be a "cop out" I think it would be wonderful lesbian rep if they plan her this way! her and Twyla is a huge ship and I find it adorable. there's gotta be SOMETHING there if so many people ship it. normally I don't go with the flow with ships I need something there.
But a lot of gay kids see themself in Howleen and if anyone could be the one to show them it's okay? it would be her. Howleen spent the entirety of G1 trying to find herself.
I think it's time she does.
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disasterbijamietartt · 11 months
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I know what you mean about the neither confirming nor denying thing. Like I can see it as not wanting to take away from the Colin moment, and it was definitely left in a way that can be interpreted positively and I think unless they outright say otherwise, a lot of fandom will take it as a yes, he is. That said, that was the perfect time to confirm, just one line, and I will feel cheated if they dont let him acknowledge it. I am slightly more forgiving of actors teasing a character's sexuality if it seems like actually they are 100% behind it (a la Oscar Isaac with Poe, and I do think Phil with Jamie), but I will be more disappointed in the show for teasing it and not going ahead
Yeah, and you know, I’m so done settling and rejoicing over hints when the creators don’t have the backbone to make something canon. So I have a hard time giving them the benefit of the doubt right now.
Maybe they will surprise me positively, but … the more I think about this, the more it upsets me.
@time-is-restored also makes a good point here, that sleep deprived me forgot about.
The whole situation where everyone on the team looked at him like “We know what you are” was quite unsettling to me—that is not a group of queer people recognising one of their own. That is a group of straight guys singling out one in their middle because he looks/seems gay to them.
Are they stereotyping Jamie because he cares for his appearance? (which is like the only context I can think of, where “I’m flattered” makes sense as a response to me—”They think I’m gay because I’m stylish and hot, so it is a compliment”) Or do they think when Jamie talked about being too “soft” for his dad in season 1, he actually meant “gay”?
The most generous view I can come up with is, that Jamie has dated no one since Keeley and they’re collectively like “He is so hot, and also fun and kind and supportive, him being single makes no sense unless he is gay”. Like, from a fannish perspective I could also go “Haha, after Amsterdam they probably think Roy and Jamie are secretly dating”, but there is like zero proof they might actually think that.
And honestly, as much as I enjoy interpreting every little choice on the show: The average viewer doesn’t do that. The average viewer will look and jump to the first conclusion that makes sense to them, which likely will be stereotyping.
Someone (like Trent) should have called that out.
I could generously interpret the whole exchange as giving a huge hint to casual viewers: “Jamie is perceived as queer, just so you know for future reference 😉”, but still the entire scene doesn’t sit well with me. And they could have accomplished the same result in a way where Jamie actually has agency about this.
Since also, by singling Jamie out, they basically forced him to make a statement, either forcing him to lie or to come out even when he may not be ready for it, which is super shitty behaviour. (So I could also read the “I’m flattered” as him deflecting, like he knows he is bi but doesn’t feel like coming out yet and assumed they clocked him because of his appearance.)
Add to this that Colin basically was forced to come out because of the circumstances and couldn’t actually decide on his own account when and how to come out. (Which is like the opposite of what I wanted)
And we didn’t even get the how, because it was more important to focus on the straight allies 🤡 Like, if the writers didn’t want to take away from Colin’s moment, they could have made it more about Colin? (Yes, he didn't want to be a spokesperson, but it would still have been nice to have him actually say "I am gay" in front of his mates.)
I liked the conversation Roy and Isaac had and think it was necessary (partly for my queer Roy agenda), but instead of giving us this cringeworthy talk by Ted, they could have given Colin more room for his own coming out—and then have Ted reassure him, that they care about him with a story that is about Ted not caring enough about someone who actually was queer and regretting that.
Gosh, the more my brain wakes up, the more upset I get lol
(And yes, I am usually quite forgiving with actors, since they don’t have control over their franchise, but no matter how much I adore Phil, the way he constantly brings up Roy x Jamie as a possibility is going a bit too far at this point if he is only joking.)
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Building a Super Family
https://archiveofourown.org/works/50728291 by Elite4TJ Things happen for a reason. It can be sometimes difficult to process some events as having a significant reason for why it occurred, but eventually we realize why it happened. Sometimes life takes people away from us so we can grow as a person or to help bring people together. Sometimes life gives us heartaches so we can help others who might also be in a similar situation. This is the story of how life brought our heroes together to form a family. Words: 11932, Chapters: 3/6, Language: English Series: Part 1 of Building a Super Family Fandoms: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Captain America (Movies) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Peter Parker, Uncle Ben Parker (Marvel), Aunt May Parker (Marvel), James "Bucky" Barnes, Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Clint Barton, Bruce Banner, Thor (Marvel), Loki (Marvel), Sam Wilson (Marvel), Wanda Maximoff, Scott Lang, T'Challa (Marvel), Zuri (Marvel), Nick Fury, Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Pepper Potts, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Happy Hogan, Alexander Pierce, Thanos (Marvel) Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Peter Parker & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes & Tony Stark Additional Tags: Pre-Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Steve Rogers Loves Tony Stark, Tony Stark Loves Steve Rogers, Superhusbands | Married Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Steve Rogers Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Superfamily | Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Parenting Peter Parker, Adopted Peter Parker, Peter Parker is Tony Stark's Adopted Child, Peter Parker is Steve Rogers's Adopted Child, Everyone Is Alive, Aunt May Parker Lives (Marvel), Supportive Aunt May Parker (Marvel), Protective Aunt May Parker (Marvel), Uncle Ben Parker is a Good Uncle (Marvel), Dead Uncle Ben Parker (Marvel), Natasha Romanov Is Not A Robot, Good Friend Natasha Romanov (Marvel), Good Friend Pepper Potts, Awesome Pepper Potts, Good Friend Michelle Jones (Marvel), Protective Michelle Jones (Marvel), Good Friend Ned Leeds, Flash Thompson Bullies Peter Parker, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Minor Pepper Potts/James "Rhodey" Rhodes, Minor Bruce Banner/Natasha Romanov, Minor Happy Hogan/Aunt May Parker, Good Loki (Marvel), Gay Peter Parker, Gay Steve Rogers, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Gay Tony Stark, Jewish Peter Parker, Hydra (Marvel), T'Challa Lives (Marvel), Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, Not Canon Compliant with Movie: Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Not Canon Compliant with Movie: Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers Family, Tony Stark Lives read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/50728291
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mottlemoth · 2 years
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I hope I'm not alone in this feeling, but... do you ever get angry that some of your ships aren't cannon?
For example when a show hints that two characters are involved, but never outright say it?
Sometimes it just makes me so angry and mostly sad, knowing what these shows could have given us but didn't. Then something like OFMD comes along and changes the game. Let it be said I'm actually not a fan of the show (no criticisms, just not my kind of thing!) And I'm truly so so happy for everyone who loves it and so glad to see gay love on my tv , but it kind of makes me ache that ill never have that for Mystrade, two people I've loved and shipped for god knows how long.
Idk. I have a lot of feelings atm and I feel really silly for having them but as a gay man I just yearn to see more gay representation on our screens, not just hints of it. I think a lot of this has come up since OFMD, I just want to shake writers of other shows and say "see!! Look how easy it is!"
I know you're loving OFMD, but do you/ have you ever experienced the same bitterness towards other pairings? Or is my brain just being stupid lol?
You’re not being stupid, friend. Not at all. It’s odd - before OFMD, I was never one of those “will my ship be canon?????” fans. The possibility of any of my ships (like Mystrade, for instance) becoming canon always seemed so remote that I didn’t really think about it. 
But since OFMD, I've really struggled to enjoy some of the shows I used to like. I don't want to name them, because I don't want my inbox setting ablaze, but... well, you can guess. Those big name shows where the creator/s were super proud of themselves for having the courage to show one (1) yearning look between two men. A yearning look which a straight audience would be able to blink and miss, of course. Or interpret as any number of other things.
In the light of OFMD, those crumbs of “representation” just seem like an insult now.
It’s worse because OFMD didn’t even set out to be groundbreaking or revolutionary. They didn’t swan in with the intent of making history. They made a silly pirate romcom which just happened to be gay, then like Elle Woods, smiled and blinked and asked, “What, like it’s hard?” 
Now I have this feeling towards showrunners, like... if the silly pirate show could do it, why couldn’t you? 
I mean. Imagine if Sherlock really had given us canon Johnlock. Imagine how touching they could have made it, how tender. Imagine the point they’d have made. They had that chance right there in their hands. They had a gigantic fanbase who would’ve supported them to the hilt. And they blew it.
So you’re right, secret person. It’s very easy to be bitter.
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faisdm · 1 year
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The one downside to Tumblr, compared to say, Twitter, is that Tumblr just doesn’t care about your original works. It is painfully difficult to get people on Tumblr to give even a single shit about an original comic, story or game. It’s not a new thing, of course, it’s been like that for over a decade... but it’s always disappointing, and if you’re new here and thinking “maybe someday if I get really good and get published, or get really popular in a fandom, they’ll care!” No... sorry, they won’t, and you need to know that, or you’ll keep trying to please them and slowly get worn down by it as nothing you do seems to get you anywhere, even if you’re giving them everything they loudly proclaim they want.
It’s bizarre; people on Tumblr would rather invent an entire non-existent movie by rich cishet people and pretend it has gay subtext- subtext! Not even text!- than read original queer works by queer creators and discuss and celebrate them! Like, FFS, Tumblr, LOVE YOURSELVES. The best you can imagine for yourselves is hypothetically being queerbaited!?
And don’t get me wrong, I love the shared creativity of all the posters and things and the in-joke of the made up gangster movie, but coming back to Tumblr after a while on Twitter, hoping for a “better place” I’m inevitably reminded of why I always end up drifting off it. I want people to read my work; I put a lot of effort into it, and spending time on a platform that aggressively doesn’t give a shit while proclaiming “boy, I wish there were more things like [describes exactly my work]... but there aren’t, so we’ll just have to pretend the characters from this straight series by straight people might have maybe not been straight!” is just....EUGH. It’s tiresome! People on twitter will take a chance on it! People on Tiktok will give it a go, and even Facebook! It has thousands of subscribers, it’s on a Tapas program, it ran a pretty successful Kickstarter, and I’ve been published multiple times, so it’s clearly not a bad comic... and it has everything Tumblr claims to like in it! Sword lesbians, political metaphors, meme jokes, autistic and nonbinary representation, positive bisexual rep... AND it’s made by a long-time Tumblr person from the fucking Homestuck fandom! (over ten years as admin and VA on one of the biggest Homestuck projects that exists, an artist on not just fan albums, but two of the official albums!) What more can I give you to convince you this comic is for you, Tumblr!? I made it for you!
The problem with Tumblr is that everyone talks like they’re super open-minded and totally interested in supporting marginalised people... but they’re really not? They’re actually interested in curating an image, and if “supporting marginalised people” is part of that image, somebody will reblog content about the concept of supporting marginalised people. But you’re marginalised in publishing and hoping Tumblr will actually support your work focused on themes and groups underrepresented in media? Tumblr won’t help you, because people on Tumblr people only care about a thing if you can make it fit within the narrow band of “on brand” things that they’re already into. So you actually have to have a massive fandom already before Tumblr will feel like your fandom’s content has an audience and so is safe to share as part of the brand you’ve curated.
...and sadly, that’s why for original creators, Tumblr can never replace Twitter, even though Twitter is the worst; because we need to find people who will actually try new things, and Tumblr people don’t. They’ll just sit there, reblogging the same stuff about “what if these two canonically straight white men in suits cuddled a little bit?” And then make the tired excuse that “Well, I HAVE to do this because nobody provides the real queer content I would totally consume if it was real!” and waving that very real queer content in their faces will just result in them pretending not to see it.
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byelair · 2 years
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hi i wrote out the theory of queerbaiting, something my friend and i concocted years ago as a sort of choose-your-own-adventure from the perspective of the creators doing the queerbaiting. and i think its super relevant to think about the paths the duffer bros chose to go down for season 4. (this is assuming that they are purposefully queerbaiting. it’s still possible that there’s a chance for byler in s5!)
so picture this. you’re a writer and you make a story about/including two best friends, but you use common tropes and writing devices that are commonly used in displays of romantic relationships to show how close they really are. fine ! sure ! maybe you do this on purpose, maybe by accident.
now, the show is released. and is a smash hit! but oh no! people think your two characters are in love. there are a few roads that you, the writer, can take from here
road one: completely write out the possibility of these two characters getting together. keep them friends but have them interact less, get a new relationship, be supportive and happy for the others’ partner, etc. separate them. distance them.
road two: get one or both of the characters OUT! kill them, make them move, write them off. bury your gays.
road three: lean into it. lean into the romance. its getting you views, press, people are talking about it and theorizing, and you’ll be able to capitalize on the devoted queer audience. keep it vague enough to not offend the conservative cishet audience, but also vague enough to keep the gays hopeful. and keep this up indefinitely!
road four: actually allow those characters to fall in love. if this is the road you choose, congrats! you’re not queerbaiting, and you’re exempt from the rest of this post.
now that the show is out, and you’ve taken either road 1, 2, or 3, you’re going to get accused of queerbaiting. there are a few ways to reach your audience and address the issue outside of the source text.
road one: get defensive. deny. insist that it’s just a friendship and the queer audience is getting angry for nothing, and they aren’t allowing a simple close friendship to happen.
road two: get on your high horse. be condescending, talk about the audience as if they’re too stupid for your show. talk down. similar to road one, just with an air of faux-intellect
road three: introduce a new, canonically queer character to use as a body shield against queerbaiting allegations but say nothing regarding the original two characters in question.
road four: blatant teasing. make your audience guess whether or not it’ll happen. tease it in trailers, in posts, in comments. give the gay viewers hope with no intention of followthrough.
queerbaiting often happens because people want to write about friendship and forget that queer people exist. what they do next says a lot about their morals and how they view queer people in general.
and that’s it! i’d love to hear y’all’s thoughts.
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4 and 19 for the salty ask game
you didn't specify a fandom but im pretty sure you followed me for owl house stuff so i will assume you meant the owl house fandom.
4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*
lmao if youve followed me for any time at all you would know i fucking hate the huntlow ship. huntlow ship my beloathed <3< <3< <3< :333 at least how 90% of the fandom portrays them. ppl will see a white angsty boy and immediately find the one shippable girl and file down all her character and make her his emotional support decoration.
to be clear, huntlow in the actual show is fine. i don't think them getting together would add anything to their character arcs, and since the show is running on a tight schedule i think they should have just cut that subplot out. i think there are ways to make them interesting but the show doesn't have any time to do that. there's barely anything substantial about the ship in canon anyway so i think it's fine. it's ignorable if you dislike it and its enough to extrapolate into a funny post canon ship if you do. my opinion on huntlow in the show is like my opinion on gustholomule. it's fun to consider but it's obviously not important to the story i actually care about.
but the shippers??? hoooo the shippers. first of all while i don't like to think about most fandom stuff from the stance of representation it's really important that owl house is like. THE gay cartoon rn. the creator had to fight tooth and nail and write around a bunch of stuff to get queer couples on air and make the fandom more receptive to it outside of a fetishistic thing or a "cute background couple that everyone acknowledges is canon but no one actually explores" thing. and then the moment a blond boy looks at a girl everyone explodes. im not calling ppl bigoted for shipping it bc i dont know the exact reasons every single huntlow shipper likes the ship but the fact that they also try to use rep to justify it? even though 90% of them didn't give a shit about the non white boy half of the ship before the ship became a thing? not a great look for the average huntlow fan lmao.
also the mischaracterization of both characters, especially willow, is super annoying. it shouldn't be a hot take but characterizing willow to be a brute that tries to beat up everyone who looks at her wrong? and indicating that hunter, a survivor of child abuse, is attracted to her because of this? uhhhhh don't like that! its one thing to portray this and explore why its bad but that sure isn't what 90% of the shippers do! youre allowed to depict any dynamic you want but im allowed to say that depiction sucks shit! same with making willow to be either a 50s housewife or a manic pixie dream girl she isn't any of that? literally just make a self insert to ship hunter with if you want his ya love interest ass so bad.
anyway ive complained more about the huntlow ship and its place in fandom here, here, here, here, here, and here, among others. a lot of my points are in the tags lmao. that isn't to say all huntlow shippers are annoying some of them make genuinely good content thats in character for both of them! but the shipping community is. bad. and i already didn't care for the ship anyway so they haven't made my opinion better. it was a mistake for the show to put hunter's conventionally attractive angsty ass into a shippable position lmao.
19. What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?
I think part of this phenomenon is because the fandom skews younger since at the end of the day toh is a disney show rated for kids. but there's a phenomenon ive seen with a lot of young skewing fandoms where fans assume just because the thing they like is diverse, that automatically exempts them from being bigoted or even having implicite biases. like "i cant be racist my friend is black!" but it's with fandoms so they have even less of a leg to stand on. ive been guilty of that too in the past and im trying to examine my biases both in fandom and more importantly in real life.
the fandom has a serious favouritism towards the white and/or male characters. just look at the disparity of opinions on the blight parents, even before clouds on the horizon. or even better, before s2 when all we had on them was just a background shot in lilith's flashback. people were already portraying odalia as a catty evil woman and alador as his uwu tortured husband whos scared of her, before we even knew their names.
same goes for other female villains compared to the male ones. all the villains are different so there isn't a one to one comparison but generally, the reactions to villains like darius (right after his first appearance in edas requiem) and graye were a lot more nuanced. most people who talked about them were trying to write meta about them or finding them sexy or thinking about a redemption arc.
and compared to female villains like terra or kikimora? i am serious about this they were objectively more compelling villains than darius or graye in their debut, if you discount kiki's minor appearances in s1 and just look at hunting palismen, her first episode as a major villain. and yet most people talking about terra and kiki after the fact were just calling them bitches or other more sexist stuff i won't say. and being mad at them for...doing bad things to the protagonists? bc they're villains? i get the lack of thirsting but no serious meta? ive grumped about it here. also i wasn't in the fandom during the week between agony of a witch and young blood old souls where everyone wanted lilith's head on a stick but from what ive heard? yyyyeah i don't think they were just mad at her for being a villain.
same thing with the white characters people always give so much more focus on the white characters compared to the poc. luz had a bunch of angst like amity in season 1 but 99% of lumity content focused entirely on amity angst. the hyperfocus on hunter is something to note too. i get that fans love angsty characters. i do too. but him being a white boy definitely didn't hurt his popularity lmao.
its a problem in the show too so not all the blame falls on fans. the show focuses on majority white characters as well. even though the show is very racially diverse, luz's most important relationships except her mom are eda, amity, and hunter, and gus and willow are pushed to the side. same thing with their portrayal of some female characters i love what they did with terra and kiki but their portrayal of odalia...oof. i've grumped about that here.
but yeah if you point this out a lot of fans get uncomfortable or even angry at you for accusing them of, in their eyes, being a Bad Person who likes Bad Things and have Bad Thoughts. so they argue back that there's no definitive proof that any biases are happening on a personal basis. and yeah i can't prove beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law that you're actually secretly racist or sexist but if you just look at general trends in the fandom? the bias is there. it's not a problem of individual people it's a problem of fandom culture.
anyway i don't want to say fans who do this are bad people because judging by the ages of some fans toh might be baby's first fandom for some of these kids. they haven't had enough life experience to really examine their biases or even determine their principles. it would be mean to condemn kids for having biases, especially since i also did that at their age and i'm still trying to deconstruct my biases now. these kids need to learn about nuance in media and also that fandom is not activism, but it's not my job to teach them this. this is annoying but it's a reasonable price for being in fandom. especially a fandom for a show targeted at kids.
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ketchupkio · 2 years
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What’s your spiciest loz and/or Lu take
Oh my god, damn. Controversial spicy? Y'know what? I'll post this.
Let's start with something not too spicy for loz stuff:
I don't know if, officially, minish cap, four swords, and four swords adventures should have been put on the Zelda timeline. I think they should have had their own little spinoff branch. Because they don't make a lot of sense worked into the main lore. They were developed by Capcom using the Nintendo IP and there's apparently a Ganondorf thrown in there iirc??? That's super weird and doesn't make sense.
Now am I ragging on the games? No! From what I played of minish cap, it was super delightful. I just don't think they should be included on the main timeline because Nintendo didn't develop their lore so it doesn't fit in well. In that same note, I don't think hw:aoc should be canon either. And they marketed aoc misleadingly tbh.
Also the Zelda team just likes to slap numbers on things to mark the passage of time. Idk if it's a translation thing or what but the botw gap SHOULD NOT be 10,000 years. That's way too many years.
A rant/vent about lu under the cut for the truly spicy takes, I'm very salty. If you have strong opinions about this and don't wanna get upset, don't read it.
LU take: there's no story. Just pretty pictures and half baked characterizations. The fandom took it much farther than the comic but I'm very over the fandom now. This is why I make my own stuff with a set plot because I got frustrated with such little source material to base things on, soooo I left. No gay either in canon, very sad. Some people like the lack of plot and the ability to make their fan works their own but that is not my thing at all, ESPECIALLY while the fandom can be so hostile. I don't care for LU anymore, and of the creators I still follow that post lu, I follow because I want to support THEM, not the fandom or lu comic, and in many cases I think they have a nuanced, fleshed out take on the characters they post frequently about. I'm all for people making their own content independent of lu, but maybe I'm just jaded and salty. I just really dislike lu.
It's also made linkshipping a very hostile environment, like I think I'm gonna get attacked someday bc someone that has adopted the LU mindset just takes it upon themselves to doxx me or something because I ship my own version of the hero of Legend and hero of Warriors (entirely separate from LU), and I'm open to other people's interpretations and ships? Like there's actually nothing wrong with it. Ever hear of don't like don't read? Yeah, now shut the fuck up about it because this discourse is childish and I shouldn't have to fear for the future of my online presence and mental state over a ship that's objectively unproblematic, and people shouldn't be afraid to approach me and tell me that they like my work because they're afraid of getting found out and having their reputation ruined and losing their friends! Asau makes me happy. All of my free time goes into it. I shouldn't feel terrified that I'll lose it all one day because someone decided to be an idiot.
And even if people ship stuff in lu. Who fucking cares? You shouldn't. People have shipped things ever since fandom has existed, so even if the creator of one webcomic says they don't want that, it's bigger than her now. Policing views isn't helping anyone. It is only actively hurting people and making them feel unsafe. It's not worth it. I promise you it's not.
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I Survived the "Voltron: Legendary Defender" Fandom Ship Wars
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I've seen my fair share of fandoms, and the subsequent warring that can go on within them. Shipping tends to be the primary focus of a lot of it, and that was no more true than "Voltron: Legendary Defender" and I'm reliving my experience with it because shut up.
I literally was only in this whole thing because, as the Megas XLR theme song states, "I dig Giant Robots", which is true of pretty much everyone. I wanted a fun space opera quest with giant friggin robots that was done better than the anime from the 80s. The prospect of former members of the crew of Avatar: The Last Airbender being on the project sweetened the deal. And for a time it was good... and then it all imploded because idiots had to ruin it.
This was honestly the dumbest dip in fandom engagement I've ever seen and it was all over shipping and seriously stupid fucking people. A series if idiotic actions that led to compromises at the creative level that severely undercut the end product. Everything that transpired in the run up to the series finale, from the 7th Season onward, perhaps even before that, you can trace to one thing... the Shipping War between which dude Keith, the Red Paladin, should fuck. His older mentor Shiro, who turned out to already be in a same-sex relationship, or Blue Paladin Lance... the literal Lancer of their five man band.
Oh it got ugly fast, Shiro was too old for Keith, they were reading too much into rivalry of Lance and Keith, accusations of pedophilia, nasty screaming about whether they'd LET these characters be gay, I watched it all and rolled my eyes thinking "Who gives a flying fuck?" Let's not even get into how the fandom treated the potential female rivals for Lance and Keith's affections. Allura and Lance shippers were a lesser front in the war of words. The main screaming matches were between the slash ships, but there was always a little ire reserved for anything hetero. I remember how desperate they all were to find a way out. To prove that Space Azula, Acxa, was not into Keith, maybe even his sister.
For a while it stayed like this, angry fans on reddits and twitters and tumblrs and forums of all sorts. Then the shippers did the big No-NO, what EVERY fan sooner or later seems to forget. You bring this drama to the attention of the creators... and you involve them in it. Suddenly it's no longer about preferences, it's about fans making demands of the creative team. "Make us Canon or die!" And it probably wouldn't have been so bad if the Voltron Team wasn't so active on social media, but they were! Poor sweet summer children, were they ever.
Any tacit support for one side over the other was seen as damning condemnation. How DARE the creatives speak about their own preferences? Or ideas? Or lend credence to that side over the others! Maybe they're pedos too if they seem to want Keith and Shiro to be together. How dare they dismiss all this evidence of Klance and ruin their whole super important character development that is clearly integral to the story about the intergalactic war against an even empire utilizing a giant robot.
I just did not care for ANY of this. I was paying attention to Pidge exclusively at this point as her story was far more engaging and or interest than over some stupid romance most people had made up in their head. And I felt that getting on the asses of the creators to bend to one side of the other was becoming more and more fucking disrespectful. Let them tell their story, ya jerks, stop trying to force them to tell what you want. Just write fanfics if you're that desperate.
Then... someone did something VERY stupid. Well, two someones actually. During a tour of Dreamworks Animation, someone thought it would be quite "corking" if they allowed their fellow "high school chums" a look at some classified storyboards and sketches. A few neat little spoilers online that they snuck out of the tour on a hidden camera. Clever little scamp, posted it online... and instantly drew the ire of Dreamwork's legal department. Net wide, Dreamworks demanded the removal of the spoilers. But one moron thought it would be a brilliant fucking idea to keep them up... unless demands were met.
"Make Klance Canon and I'll take the spoilers down!"
The idiot's understanding was, since other sites had the pictures, that they couldn't be liable for stealing anything. They didn't take the pictures, they just had them. So really, if the other sites were going to be pressured into removing the material, they could keep it up and use it as a form of protest. To make their stupid ship real.
Other people told them, that's fucking blackmail, that's illegal. And eventually that thought stuck.
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Yeah ya did, Sunshine. People thought these two fans were one in the same, but from every indication it seems like it really was two people with the "blackmailer" likely being a really stupid kid who took advantage of a situation without realizing that their plan was gonna potentially land them in a ton of legal trouble. But the damage was done at this point. Because once fans start threatening to ruin ALL of your creative plans, that's when the higher ups get involved. That's when shit has to change and drastically.
To summarize what happened, from what most people have gathered, a lot of story points, ideas, plots, etc. got up ended by all of this. They had to alter their original ideas because the fans had fucked it up by going overboard. Now, whatever plans they had for the series were basically thrown out the window in favor of a new direction that NO ONE LIKED!
Allura and Lance get rushed into a relationship, Shiro's husband dies and he finds a new one some rando background dude. Any potential Keith romance is just thrown out because both sides are already losing, might as well not anger them more, oh and then lets kill off Allura next just as quickly as we finalized this relationship. EVERYBODY LOSES and it's all because a bunch of shippers could not fucking chill!
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And I just laughed, I just had so much fun watching the rest of this trainwreck slide into the on fire tire fire on the garbage scowl before sinking into the sea and hitting an unexploded atomic warhead from a sunken sub! They all went ballistic, every single fan just fucking went off at once in a screaming angry tirade of abject total failure. But I was mostly cool, because Pidge got a great ending and I didn't care about anything else at that point. So out of ALL the fans of Voltron, I won. I won along with every Pidge fan and I was more than happy to watch the rest burn. And fuck'em anyway, they did this to themselves. Let them all shriek and screech and run around mad at the creators. They made themselves so fucking toxic, so goddamn impossible to deal with that I'd have probably done it sooner were I in charge and probably worse.
I'd have had Auxia kiss Keith full on the lips while she lifts one of his legs to lightly straddle her while both Shiro and Lance look on giving thumbs up and hugging close their own significant others. Shiro's would've been a dude at least because I'm not so cruel as to throw away LGBT representation. But still, totally would've done that shit in like season 5. Trust me, I would've drunk the angry screeching of everyone because they all deserved it at that point. ALL OF THEM. I have no sympathy.
Voltron: Legendary Defender is a lesson for fans the world over. Shipping is all fun and games when you keep it that way. Write fanfics, share your headcanon, create all the racey sexually explicit dude on dude, girl on girl, human on tentacle monster, etc. art you can paint or sketch to your heart's desire... but leave the creative team out of it. It's ultimately their story, not yours. And believe me, most of you here and Tumblr played RIGHT into all that shit because I know at least a few of you fucking did this.
As for me, to prove I'm not completely above it all, I'll pony up. I had one Voltron Ship, one I actually liked, supported and was totally cool with knowing it was never gonna happen. And it's not any of the ones you think... I wanted Lance to get with one specific person. Well, not person, fish-person.
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Plaxum! That's right! I wanted Lance to end up with the Mermaid Revolutionary voiced by Mae Whitman! Because fuck it, Mermaids are fucking awesome and you can try however you fucking want to ruin the fantasy of mermaid love under the sea with your fish biology lessons, I know for a fact you're all wrong because if anything, mythical mermaids are more akin to sharks than regular fish and SHARKS actually DO have sex. The males have TWO big fat ones down under in fact, so what does that say about mermaids?
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So in conclusion this has been a very long winded way of me justifying my mermaid fantasy and possibly grossing a lot of you out. I have no regrets and if any remaining Voltron Fans want to take issue with it, tough. The show's over I can make up whatever I want. Namely that Lance eventually returned to Mermaid world and had a hundred or so babies with Plaxum, because I live in fanfic land and you can't drag me out of it if you tried!
I have now thoroughly wasted ALL of your time. Good day!
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victimsofyaoipoll · 7 months
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Round 3
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Propaganda Under Cut
Stephanie Brown
Literally my best friend ever!!! Every time she shows up in a comic I point at her and smile!!! She’s the vigilante known as spoiler & batgirl & was a robin before getting fridged because of editorial mandate and misogyny she deserves so much better @_@. The m/m that some people hate her for is timkon; like they ARE very gay but people are genuinely insane about hating her instead of also realizing that she too is gay (insane amount of subtext w her bff cass). Basically she was Tim’s girlfriend for a long time on and off. People will literally call her abusive for no reason they’ll be like oh but she didn’t apologize for starting a gang war accidentally and faced no consequences for it :/ as if she wasn’t literally KILLED OFF BRUTALLY. And although hate is rarer for her nowadays from what I’ve seen she’s also a victim of Background Lesbian Syndrome. And also a victim of Woman Not Allowed To Have Ocmplex Feelings in the source material itself (tim is canonically bi now yay but like steph wasn’t allowed to have any complicated feelings at all at her on again off again ex breaking up with her for good???). Anyways she’s the light of my life.
she’s the light of my life my baby girl my everything. she canonically dated tim drake, but people love to ship tim with his male friend kon or his male brothers (🤢🤮) and so they constantly sideline her, making her the quirky wingwoman or sometimes even villainizing her by trying to claim she was abusive to tim. i don’t know why so many people hate her my girl will literally just be standing there and people will hate on her.
Stephanie was first introduced in the 1994 Robin series as a side love interest for Robin, but when she turned out to be really popular she became the main love interest. Because of this, she was fully fleshed out as a vigilante calling herself Spoiler to try and take down her villainous father, the Cluemaster. She later grew a lot closer to other cast members, such as Batgirl and Oracle, to get herself a firmly established place among the bats. Then, she dies in a gang war after taking up the Robin mantle. Eventually, in 2009, she was brought back from the dead and took on the Batgirl mantle. Her and Robin get back together sometime around ~2010 and they are solidly together until 2021. Then, Robin breaks up with her off panel for zero reason in canon, only to date some really boring guy named Bernard. By fanon, she's often demonized and turned into an abuser to make either this ship, or a lot of other mlm ships happen. Either that or things are mysteriously set in the time she's dead despite characters who were not yet introduced until she returned appearing. strange.
Amy Rose
WAUGH okay so basically like everyone villainizes her when shipping Sonic with any other character (and 99% of the time its Amy being villainized against a m/m ship ://) but yeah Amy canonically has a "crush" on Sonic and stuff (which is weird in its self cuz age gaps and things but creators smh) and anyways any time people write Sonic in a relationship with other characters they always make her super upset and mad that Sonic isn't dating her etc etc and basically make her a pouting 12 year old because her super hero crush doesn't date her instead of writing her as a supportive best friend to sonic WHICH SHE SHOULD BE WRITTEN AS !!!! and uh yeah if you couldn't tell this makes me so upset because amy is such a good character people should stop ruining her
Even outside of yaoi, she is the most hated character in the FRANCHISE. THERE ARE ENTIRE WEBSITES DEDICATED TO HATING ON HER. HER MERE EXISTANCE CREATES SHIP WARS. IT IS HELL. EVEN THE OFFICIAL TWITTER ACCOUNT AND THE ARCHIE COMICS HATED ON HER IN THE PAST.
Not only is she a incredibly serious victim of yaoi, she is bashed in every fic where Sonic is paired with someone other than her. And when she is paired with someone other that Sonic, Sonic is bashed. And when she is paired with Sonic, other characters commonly paired with Sonic are bashed. It is a chain reaction of madness. Even outside of shipping, she is one of the most hated characters in the fandom. She was flanderized to ridiculous amounts. Even the official Sonic twitter used to mock her. Even official gaming news sites mock her, with a particularly horrible case being when TheGamer outright said Sonic being paired with TAILS is better than Sonic being paired with Amy. The amount of hate this character has attracted is incredibly large. There are entire websites dedicated to hating her.
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zuble · 3 years
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the fnaf fandom saw scott cawthon make scary robot series and went “scott can we have some lgbt representation” and scott said “ok here’s an agender rabbit with no screen time and uhh a fox with an ambiguous gender?” and we were like “ok scott now can we have some lesbians please?” and he was like “(john mulaney voice) NO”
and martin walls really made his own scary robot series and said “SHES a lesbian and SHES a lesbian and you know what fuck it this rabbits a lesbian too” and i just slurp it right up
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pencilscratchins · 3 years
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please tell me every bit of ds9 drama
oh theres simply too much to cover in one post, so i will limit myself to spreading the legend of Andrew Robinson's fan fiction
So; it's the mid 90's and known character actor Andrew Robinson was just cast as Garak on Deep Space Nine: a one off character, intended to have a single episode in season one. Cut to 1999 its the final season of the show and Garak gets a special send off as a fan favorite recurring character in the shows final moments. How did that happen? Well, the short answer is: Andrew Robinson is bonkers and I'm obsessed with him.
Okay so in order to frame this, you have to know that Andy Robinson? is an ActOUR okay? he is like a well and true, trained classical performer and as such, he would often approach roles (regardless of size) with complete conviction. Garak was no different. He practiced a technique that a lot of older actors would use. Andy wrote a journal from the perspective of Garak to get a feel for the character before he even APPEARED on the show! Andy literally wrote over 200 words of extremely detailed backstory for Garak. Again, NOBODY ASKED HIM TO DO THIS. BUT he showed up to the DS9 writers room with this CHARACTER BIBLE of his gay lizard OC and said "hey i wrote all of this about this one off character that you tricked me into playing because I originally auditioned for Odo, didn't get it, and pressured me with money to appear as Garak (story for another time)," and it was all SO GOOD and the writers loved it so much that they literally couldnt help but keep him on the show. (also, clearly, the writers loved his performance and audiences loved the character, so there was a lot of support of keeping him on the show but really: its all because Andy put his whole ass into this show LMAOO)
Garak's backstory as written by Andy was hugely influential in how his character would later be developed and tons of ideas that Andy wrote about became real canon for the character; and he later expanded the bible into a longer story which would be published in 2000 in the novel "A Stitch in Time."
BUT THIS ISN'T THE END OF ANDY'S WRITING! as the show continued and Garak's popularity grew, Andy became a super popular guest at cons. Clearly a talented writer, Andy would (in his free time) write one shots of Garak's pre DS9 life and inner thoughts on the station, and READ THEM ALOUD AT CONS! While I can't vouch to any of these stories being explicitly Garak/Bashir romantic in nature (though if you attended any of these cons and have more info, please share it) Andrew's writing became a thing of legend. In fact, he and Siddig (who is a gem) actually cowrote a play called "The Dream Box" about Garak and Bashir that they would act out at cons! INSANE! (needless to say, this was less than thrilling to the infamously homophobic producer of 90's trek, Rick Berman who was vocally against Garashir and didn't like Andy very much at all)
In a truly incredible move, Andy and Sid's regard for fan fic was again shown this past year when the two of them teamed up to perform two fics over zoom, vocally supporting fandom creators and reiterating their love of Garashir as a ship.
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valenhell · 3 years
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From the studio that brought you “I can’t find good Byler fics in the ao3 tag”, comes:
"The Definitive Byler fic rec list"
Literally no one asked for this but because I spent the majority of last year (...and 2019, and 2018...) reading byler fics and coping with life, I thought I’d make a list of some of my absolute favorites. 
The other day I was basically starving for some byler fics and the angel @magicalfairy provided me with some of her faves so I thought I’d do the same, because I love reading, and I love all of these fics and I appreciate their writers💗 And fic writers in general, come on!
- This is a mix of long works and one-shots/short stories. - Everything is mostly fluff with a tad of angst and a lot of internalized homophobia conflict.  - Every fic is completed, except for the ones I mention that they are not. - I try my best to lay out the stories in a way that I won’t spoil you the plot but also warning you of some stuff you might don’t like. Either way, all of these fics are correctly tagged by their respective authors/owners, so read at your own risk. For better understanding, in between brackets I denote Rating, Words and quantity of Chapters. - I feel like I should clarify, none of these are narrated in the singular first person. None of that “And I told him...”, no. 
Long fics
a dream always the same (T, 99k, 35 chapters) What happened in those few weeks between the Battle of Starcourt and the Byers leaving Hawkins. Literally a satisfying and very needed fill in of season three, with a good dose of Mike’s thoughts and conflict. Mike’s characterization is specially amazing in this one. The writing style is amazing and I know the author put everything into making it historically accurate, and it was really sweet. You probably read it, it’s by the amazing sevensided here on Tumblr🧡
Spring Break (T, 120k, 14/15 chapters) The slowburn of my dreams. Lots of internalized conflict and conflict with each other. Conflict within the Party (uhh kind of), conflict with Mike and Will. Byers family has moved and the kids are visiting! Chaos. Characterization is on point. Yeah, I know it’s unfinished, but the fourteenth chapter actually serves as a pretty nice ending. 
This is where it starts (M, 148.8k, 24 chapters) Aged up characters. The Party is in college and Will disappears again, but now it’s different. Mike knows he didn’t vanish from thin air, and the discovery he and the Party end up making is pretty insane. Mystery solving/fantasy/third dimension, throw in a bit of D&D and Mike realizing some shit, and you get this marvelous fic. It’s a breath of fresh air. The world building is definitely one of the elements that stands out the most, because it’s very nicely described, it sounds like a dream and it’s completely immersive. Absolute gem of a fic. 
there’s a Starman waiting in the sky (M, 30.6k, 8 chapters) Do I need to say anything? Will is out there living his best life and Mike realizes that wow, umm, maybe his best friend looks a bit too nice with that costume... and wait, is he getting horny? It’s actually really fun and sexy.
The Evening Speaks (T, 23k, 7 chapters) In where Mike is a late-night college radio host and Will is the art student that stays up till late to catch up with Wheeler on the Mic. They flirt through songs y’all, this one is really sweet. 
heads or tails? (E, 24k, 3 chapters) Aged up characters. I know most people don’t enjoy sex in fics and with specific characters but this one is insanely well written. It’s a slowburn that commits to the tension and with every word you are grasping and anticipating their next move. I think you can find the author here on Tumblr as yousaidyes🧡
The Man of Average (M, 56.7k, 5/? chapters) Aged up characters. No but you don’t understand, the writing here is absolute gourmet. The story is exciting as well, it’s super interesting. Weirdly enough, for being very aged up characters, they are well characterized but they don’t feel like teenagers. They are naturally Mike and Will. The author really captured Mike and Will’s essence. I know, it’s unfinished and it’s updated very rarely, but this is the typical fic you can’t believe someone just posted on the internet for free. I will say though, I think it’s definitely not for everyone. Read at your own risk.
Heartstrings (E, 82.8k, 24/? chapters) Aged up characters. By the same author of The Man of Average. A collection of memories, the road to Mike and Will’s happy ever after. And fucking hell!!!!! You’ll cry and get angry, you’ll cheer for them, then you’ll want to crash their faces together because god dammit you love each other!!! But yeah, same thing here. The writing and the way the story is laid out as a nonlinear narrative is brilliant. And I also think this is one of the best Will versions I’ve read. The author might as well be the og creator of this two characters tbh. You can find the author here as mylesimeblr🧡
Sinners behind the walls (T, 1.5k, 1/1) And because I can’t stop recommending this author, a little thing of Mike tormenting himself but also being too deeply committed to Will. 
The Red Envelope series (T/E, 167K, two completed works) Something happens that Will thought was impossible and from there, pure drama and romance. Anything by this author has the potential to become your absolute favorite fic, but this series in particular is amazing. I doubt that any of you haven’t read this, but it doesn’t hurt to put it in this list. I’m pretty sure the author is serendipitous-magic on Tumblr🧡
A New Fight series (T, 91k, two completed works, one WIP) And finally the Star Wars AU that we all needed. But this isn’t your typical “Mike is Han”, “Will is Leia” and “El is Luke”, it’s way more interesting than that, and the author has appropriated the Star Wars world like no other. I’ll admit I’m not a 100% fluent in SW lore but this is amazing to me either way. This author is also on Tumblr, tea-for-one-please🧡
- Yes, most of these are (if not all), in a way, canon compliant/canonverse/canon continuation into fanon. (In a way)
One-shots and short stories
Sundae for Two, Please (G, 4.8k) Steve being the supportive friend and older brother these kids collectively need. (not Jonathan erasure, we love him). Steve is very sweet himself, and this little cute thing through his POV is gorgeous. Yes, it’s byler.
Backstage (T, 10k, 2/2) Jonathan, you forgot to mention to Will how hot your new band’s guitarist is, dude. Now he’s hyperventilating and weirdly flirting with him in the corner. Background Stonathan because why not.
102 Peach Street (G, 3.8k) Established relationship, but not only that, they are married :’’))) PURE fluff. Extreme fluffiness. Diabetes. 
sweatshirts and bottled up feelings (T, 3.2k) Or, Mike thinks that the sweatshirt Will wears looks insanely good on him. And kitchens are for lovers. 
kiss it better (T, 16.3k) Basically one of the best character studies of a few precise moments of Mike and Will’s relationship and feelings. 
will wonders ever cease (T, 11.3k) #i ship will and happiness. Omfg what a beautiful piece of fanfic. Will centric, this kid really deserves all the good in the world.
The Calm After the Storm (T, 1.6k) Tooth rotting fluff, boyfriends in love. Boyfriends being lazy, cuddling, love words, kisses. Boys loving each other’s company... Basically, Mike and Will in their element. What more can you ask for?
neither of us ready to let go (T, 4.8k) That scene from season three, but a bit of a fix it. 
Still in love (G, 1k) Domestic, married life au fluff. Y’all, I’m a sucker for established Byler, even if I can’t find many fics with it. But this is very sweet. It takes place in 2020, but I don’t think there are any mentions of the COVID-19 crisis that I remember.
I Nver Find Out ‘Til I’m Head Over Heels (G, 12.5K) Classic 5+1 fic. If you haven’t read it, where have you been? This is your moment. In where Mike keeps inviting Will to the school dances and Will thinks it’s just a joke until he realizes it’s not. 
Before You’re Gone (T, 5.9k) Will is leaving Hawkins and Mike thinks this is a great moment for a confession. This one I discovered last friday, thank you friend @magicalfairy 💗
You’re weird Wheeler (M, 4.5k) Mike unintentionally starts a tradition of going to each other to talk about their sexual encounters just after they finish. Will keeps getting more explicit with the details he shares, and he makes his best friend interested. This one is really fun y’all.
Out-Of-Town Friends (N/R, 4.6K) It’s not rated. I haven’t re- read it but I’d say it would probably fall in a T rating. So cute!! Will has new friends and sneaks off every friday and the Party doesn’t know where he is going, so Mike decides to follow him and is surprised. 
Snowed Under (G, 1.3k) By the same author of The New Fight series. Mike is spending christmas by himself in college because a snowstorm hits Chicago and Nancy can’t drive to see him, but then he has a surprise visitor. Ahhh just a lil sweet holiday fic. Super cute. 
you love me anyway series (T, 7.1k, three completed works) Literally just the cutest thing ever. Established Byler. Will loves to take pictures and he loves taking pictures of Mike. It’s adorable. 
you wanna be friends forever (i can think of something better) (T, 9k) This one is so amazing. So. Amazing. From Will’s POV, my kid deserves the world and he gets it. 
okay not to be okay (T, 4.9k) Mike is a bit sad but then everything is okay. 
can’t hold out forever (G, 18.4k) Y’all!!!!! 5+1 sweetness. Mike has been falling in love since kindergarten. And it’s long af, you’ll enjoy it. 
even if it takes forever (G, 1.3k) College short AU, they miss each other, they love each other, they promise all to each other. It is sappy y’all.
clear as day (N/R, 18.4K, 4 chapters) It’s not rated, but I’d say it falls in the T category. Strangers to friends to lovers. And also, everyone is pretty gay; we have our dynamic trio Mike, Max and El as disaster lesbians (and gay). Will works at the library and he is also gay. Lucas and Dustin and Will are the best friends we needed. It’s very sweet and the Party is kind of formed here!
I went overboard with the one-shots, so you must have realized how much I love long one-shots and I favor them over long works lmao but they are all amazing!!! If it’s on this list, I probably read it at 2 am, sobbing in my bed. So. Hope you enjoy it☺️🧡
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