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#a really popular fanfic most of the fanbase has read
flecks-of-stardust · 4 months
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wholeheartedly and with as much gentleness as possible, i truly think there needs to be more discussion about downpour in the community as it is now. for a variety of reasons.
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strrwbrrryjam · 4 months
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i love how its a common trope to give noah friends (aside from izzy, eva and owen), I've seen him with lindsay, courtney, gwen, tyler, harold, leshawna, cody, duncan, heather and more.
i love how its also a common trope to make chris and cheff like. eccentric uncles or father figures, expanding on something that the show introduced and did nothing with, its great honestly.
i also love how noah being a dad is also a common trope for him, and how he has so. many. children. idk. he's just so. dad shaped to me. yknow
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magenta-embers · 6 months
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My Jikook Journey
Part 2 of my intro.
From "multi-shipper" to "...wait a goddamn minute."
This will be a messy and detail-lacking overview because I could easily do an individual post on each thing I mention here and delve deeper (AMA!).
When I became an ARMY in 2018, I was excited about the treasure trove of fanfics now available to me. The ship didn't really matter, but my bias was/is Jimin (bias wrecker Tae then) so the very first fic I read was a vmin camping one (there was only one sleeping bag, gasp!). For me, shipping meant I'd read fanfics or save fanart of certain pairs together because in a fictional sense/in another universe, they make a good couple. I think this is a healthy approach, keeping that boundary between reality and fiction.
When I mentioned to my k-pop fan step-sister that I was reading vmin, she gave me a weird look. She said taekook is THE ship of BTS, which confused me because vmin seemed to be closer and have better chemistry than Tae and JK. Turns out, she was right. Searching by most kudos on ao3, you get a shit ton of taekook. I accepted it readily and just thought I must be missing something since I was a baby ARMY, so I read those super popular fics and started to enjoy taekook too. I started to focus more on them because... it felt like that was what I was supposed to do.
It's a common problem, isn't it? Baby ARMY who are open to shipping are quickly found and "guided" to taekook before they have a chance to glance in another direction. If they try, taekookers, who are the majority in the shipping sphere, will convince them that taekook is THE ship. Even if they aren't ARMY (my step-sister), they know that much. As a new fan, you just want to fit in, so you'll go along with what's most popular. Some people eventually find their own way, but many don't. Asking questions is vital, but if you do it aloud, you risk getting attacked by a small but extremely aggressive portion of the most infamous fanbase.
Even back then while just innocently reading any well-written fic I could get my hands on, I noticed that Jungkook was usually portrayed as a lot edgier and darker than he really was (manifested the 2023 JK aesthetic) and Taehyung was constantly portrayed as... Jimin. Especially in fan art. For some reason, a lot of the time, the appearance/vibe/personality of Taehyung was truer to Jimin than to himself, and that confused me. "Why not just make it Jungkook x Jimin?" I kept seeing them trying to force Taehyung into the dynamic that Jimin has with Jungkook when their own dynamic was perfectly fine.
Slipping down the pipeline, I started to watch taekook moments/analysis videos because I thought gotta be missing something, right? That's how I found out people are convinced they're dating, and it wasn't just a fun fic/art thing. The videos themselves were... something. There were just way too many red circles, too much slow-mo, and too much mind-reading going on for me to take any of it seriously. Plus, the moments that weren't exaggerated were just close friend skinship. Hell, Taejin were doing more sus shit together than taekook.
And yet people insist on taekook even when taekook do nothing to insist on themselves.
At this point, it was deep into 2019. Jikook were wilding in 2019. Even I was noticing all the... little things that made me raise an eyebrow. The touches that lingered just too long in rather intimate areas, the fond/awed looks at each other, the shameless flirting, the complete lack of physical boundaries, and the normalness of it all between them. That's telling. Even though I was mainly a taekooker with a shit ton of fanart and fics saved to my phone, if you looked at my liked YouTube videos around that time, I had jikook moments videos saved, not taekook, because their moments were just more fun/juicier to watch overall. They just interacted differently than they did with other members.
A quick example would be a video compilation of taekook holding hands. Sure, they're holding hands, maybe even interlocking fingers, but they're usually standing side by side and looking in different directions or just having a neutral expression. But if you watch a jikook one, not only is it much longer, but it's just different. I feel like I'm interrupting sometimes. Even in such a simple action like holding hands, there's a softness, an intimacy there that doesn't exist in taekook. Jikook wouldn't just be holding hands (usually for absolutely no reason), they'd be looking into each other's eyes, smiling sweetly, fully turned toward each other, attention completely captured by the other. How can I explain the look in their eyes? It just doesn't exist with vmin, yoonmin, jihope, etc.
Sidebar: All of those pairs have flirty/sus moments as most really close friendship dynamics do, but they're lighthearted to me and never invoked a true sense of.... whoa whoa whoa, hang on. If Jungkook and Jimin were my close friends IRL and I saw the way they are together, my alarms would go off. As either, "Oh my god, they're fucking," or "Oh my god, they wanna fuck each other." People always say, "Oh, Jimin's like that with everyone." No. No, he's not. Pay attention. Really pay attention to the differences in the dynamics between members. None of them have the "same" relationship. Especially pay attention to how the rest of the members react to Jikook.
Anyway,
So here I was noticing this... deeper intimacy in simple interactions with those two (because I'm a human being with eyes and life experience), and yet my Twitter timeline would just dismiss them entirely. "I love their friendship," "Wow their brotherhood is so beautiful," and "They're all so close," and normally these statements wouldn't bother me because technically they're true, but I started noticing that taekook or yoonmin would brush shoulders and everyone would be like, "Omg taekook/yoonmin married/boyfriends/real," over nothing. Their moments are cute/sweet/funny, but never more than that. The blatant hypocrisy did frustrate me a little, but ultimately I didn't overthink it; I didn't want to be delulu or look too deeply into anything because I still thought I must be missing something. Taekook is the most popular for a reason, right? Right?
But Taekook died for me when Tae told Taekookers to get out of their imagination. I respected that from him and took it at face value. It was the most aggressive shutdown of shipping we've ever had. I couldn't brush him off. It's disrespectful. He's uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, over the next couple of years, Jungkook and Jimin only got more suspicious in the minor interactions and in the big staple moments. Rosebowl. Hickeygate. Etc. Everyone was bending over backward trying to explain away the things these two did with each other, and it's always the same excuses. I was also trying extremely hard to think of any reason other than the simplest one because I didn't want to be delulu.
Because there was no way two members of a boyband were actually in a long-term relationship together. Especially in a conservative country.
Ridiculous. Unrealistic. Delulu.
I was basically telling myself in a mirror that they were just extra super duper close friends with muddy boundaries that meant sucking ears and giving neck hickeys was okay. I did allow there to be the thought that, maybe they're friends with benefits and that unavoidable intimacy now bleeds through into their regular interactions.
That opinion carried until 2023.
Isn't that funny?
2023.
The year so many jikookers gave up and bemoaned that those two weren't close anymore or had broken up is the year that finally convinced me.
What tipped me over?
Jungkook's vlives.
The way he kept watching videos of Jimin when he could just phone him. It reminded me of me watching Jimin, but I'm just a fan; I watch those videos because it's the only way I can appease my yearning to be close to and connected to Jimin, and absorb everything that he does or says or is.
Jungkook doesn't have that limitation, so why's he sitting there like a lovesick puppy with the fondest/most loving eyes when he could have Jimin over with just a call? Why's he sitting there looking like he's also yearning for something he can't have like us, the fans, when he can have it? He has Jimin's number. You don't need to watch yourself tease Jimin. You can just go do it. Just text him, bro.
It felt like he just wanted to bask in Jimin without interruption, without distraction, without having to force his attention elsewhere. Beyond being incredibly sweet, it also felt like Jungkook was making a statement, a point, because he kept doing it. Why? Is he somehow obsessed with his friend and bandmate whom he's seen almost every day for over a decade? If it was to promote him, he really didn't have to do all that? He didn't do it for the others, not to that extent.
Watching Jimin, talking about Jimin, singing Jimin's songs, fkn playing Letter on guitar. (The naked vlive flirting session? Lord, what.)
The man kept having vlives with a significant Jimin focus. He insisted on it enough times that it felt like he was trying to slap some sense into me. His insistence bothered me enough for me to finally do a deep dive into jikook.
Down the rabbit hole, I went. The more I learned, the more my jaw dropped. Where the fuck was all this info on my timeline when these motherfuckers were celebrating the most basic kpop boy interactions as if they were wedding vows? I even ended up seeing pictures/info we as fans were never meant to see at the bottom of that hole. If you know, you know.
Eventually, I ended up on this video (bless this fucking channel).
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I want everyone to understand that I had zero knowledge of established relationship timeline theories. I went into this video blind, just trying to find the point in time when JK started to warm up to Jimin. That's not what I found. I found something so much better.
Especially 2013-2015 had me in awe. I think I cried. Jimin and Jungkook had a fattest, cutest mutual crush on each other. Absolutely. And because they were young, not that famous, and still rookies with media and camera training, we get a lot of insight into those two that we wouldn't get in later years when they learned how to mask and behave more "idol"-like. Jimin was especially loud, almost sadly loud. If you haven't watched the timeline of at least those early years, I implore you to. It actually blew my mind and broke/healed my heart. It's really bittersweet to see two teenage boys with little to no experience in anything romantic trying to come to terms with themselves while also coming to terms with each other. It's like watching a coming-of-age romance movie.
I saw clear shifts from when the relationship hit turning points in certain years. I proposed a timeline in my head based on that. Imagine my fucking surprise when I found out other people have also come up with timelines, and more surprising yet, they were all unbelievably similar to mine, down to what changed in what half of the year. I, who had no previous knowledge that this was even a thing. I just noticed it all on my own. We were all seeing the same thing. The same changes. No red circles, no slow-mo, no mind reading. It's all in the body language.
I panicked a little because overall it seemed too good to be true, so I reached out to a taekooker friend to send me her best evidence videos and receipts because I just had to make sure I wasn't going totally delulu here. I needed to see that the other biggest ship had interactions and moments on the same level with that same consistency, maybe even their very own relationship timeline to bring me back down to Earth. But... there's nothing. Really, there's nothing between taekook. Not one moment where I was like, oh? You'll find hours-long jikook content videos that are absolutely jam-packed with content, significant content, but that sort of depth just doesn't exist for taekook. Instead, you get conspiracy theories.
I watched most of the videos on that best of jikook channel and several other staple channels. It wasn't as if I bought into everything presented. I still rolled my eyes at many things that were blown out of proportion by some creators, and jikook isn't free from red circles and slow-mo and bullshit. And yet, I was still overwhelmed by the mountain of crisp receipts dumped on my head.
Jikook have much, much more solid evidence supporting the theory that they are together than evidence against it. I took the facts as they are, took my social experiences for what they are, took my psychology background for what it is, and concluded that they are most likely together, probability-wise. At the very least, they are the ONLY pair in BTS that have ANY legitimate possibility of being romantically involved. If jikook isn't real, then none of the other ships have any hope whatsoever, let's not kid ourselves. It's them or none of them.
They also have much, much more evidence that they are together than with any random man or woman you wanna throw at them. There needs to be valuable evidence or a total shutdown for me to tip the scale. I'm going to need Jimin or Jungkook to state, "I am not dating anyone at all," or "Get out of your imagination," or a bighit relationship announcement, or a clear video of lip-on-lip action or very intimate interaction with someone else.
Frankly, I don't give a single fuck about a grainy pic/video when it's 2023 and there's no excuse for that. I don't give a fuck who owns the same vase or cooking pots. I don't give a fuck if either of them hugged a woman. These are not evidence. These aren't even as good as the worst Jikook evidence.
At this point in time, Jikook is still the only viable option with the information we currently have available to us. This is my opinion and I stand by it.
At the end of the day, the thing I want most is for Jimin to be happy. Currently, it seems that Jungkook makes Jimin the happiest (as Jungkook says). As long as that holds true, I'll be here. If that changes at some point in time, I'd accept it.
But until that day comes, what the fuck else am I supposed to think?
E.
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positivelybeastly · 3 months
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Does the x-office hate beast?
Cynically: yes.
Less cynically: it's complicated?
Like, here's the thing, right - Beast fans are . . . kinda rare. Sure, there's tons of people who saw the 90s cartoon and really liked him, there are tons of people who saw X-Men 3 and liked him there, there's a whole (almost separate) community of people who are still writing X-Men: First Class fanfic about that version of Hank.
But I'm talking about, will go out and write fanfiction about the character; will draw fanart of him; will actively go out of their way to talk about him on social media. I feel like that's been on the decline for the last . . . fuck, 30 years, probably? Ever since he went from this
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to this.
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Like, the difference is jarring and immediate, right?
And that lack of a dedicated fanbase made him an easy character to contort to fit stories that certain writers wanted to tell. The X-office doesn't have a ton of people gagging to write Beast, he doesn't headline his own series, he doesn't have a rabid Twitter populace who will fight and scream and shout like Emma Frost or Cyclops.
What do most people think when they see Beast? Like, normal people who don't read comics, who just consume maybe a Marvel movie twice a year, or saw a cartoon when they were a kid.
"Oh, he's cool. SO ANYWAY, MORE OF THAT WOLVERINE."
Beast is not a character with a strong base.
So he's just.
Disposable.
Who cares, throw Beast to Bendis or Ben Percy, I don't care, is what it feels like.
As for WHY he doesn't have that dedicated fanbase, well, I have theories.
A lot of Hank stories are just, sad. They're just so fucking sad and tragic and dark and about finding light where you can.
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I often find them very cathartic, like, Hank leads such a troubled and harsh life, and he savours the pleasures where he can get them, and I really love that aspect of his character, that unyielding spirit, but that does not make for a popular character.
His feline era, from 2000 to 2012, is honestly my favourite for him because he is so nuanced and his themes of learning to love your body and control yourself, and his thoughtful, measured, deeply moralistic stories resonate with me and provide me with comfort, the idea that people can be tempted to do bad in the service of good but turn away is beautiful to me.
But that's not really an easily sell? People don't usually want to be sad when they read comic books. They want to be thrilled or horrified or made to laugh. Sad is . . . harder to sell.
Honestly, I also think there's a degree of assuming that he's a snobby asshole because he talks fancy. Like, I legit think that plays into it, and you sometimes see writers fall for the same preconception, they assume that Hank is a snob, and he really isn't, he's a lower-middle class kid from Illinois who grew up on a farm and whose dad was involved in a horrific radiation accident because of poor safety conditions, this is not a person who would be snobby.
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It's so funny to me because the guy is from a fictional place in Illinois? It's never specified, which means, if anything, he probably sounds like he's from Chicago! Now, there's probably a degree to which he does speak more formally and has changed his voice, because Hank is extremely protective and conscious of the image he projects, always has been, but snobby? Pfft, nooooo. So yeah, absolutely, you see people assuming that he's a snob because he's smart. Snobby only plays well if you're Emma Frost.
I also have to say, I think there's a degree to which there's an anti-intellectual bias going on. If you look at pretty much all of the major genius characters, they are pretty much ALL unpopular because they are nerds and they are not usually portrayed as being great fighters or tacticians, which is an easy way for a character to become popular - that's why Cyclops is so popular, because he's right all the time and he's a badass, and that's an easy pop. Science solutions are inherently less visceral, harder to write and thus rarer, and do not stick in people's minds.
Moreover, what do you think of when you think of genius superhero? The reputation is of privilege and the image is of boring white guys, they assume it's just - boring. It's only interesting if it's cloaked in sarcastic wit, like House or Sherlock (during The Dark Times), or used in a martial sense, which is why Black Panther is the exception to the 'all the nerds are boring.' Bruce Banner also escapes this trap because he's had his own solo comics for 60 years and he's had a million people write absolutely amazing stories for him.
I also think that his almost complete absence from the Claremont era stories hurts his fandom reputation, because if you're an X-Men fan, you read Claremont, and Hank is not in those stories almost at all. He pops up during the Mesmero arc, during Dark Phoenix, here and there, but he spends 1974 to 1991 in the Avengers, the Defenders, X-Factor, he is so very rarely being written by who most people would consider the definitive X-Men scribe. There's also an element of the stupid X-Men vs. Avengers tribalism working against him thanks to that.
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I think Claremont writes a pretty decent Hank when he does turn up, but there's a reason he picked Jean and Scott, and it's interesting that he chose to feature Hank more often than Warren and Bobby, and even then, Warren more than Bobby. I don't know if Hank was really heavily in demand so he just couldn't get him, or if he didn't know what stories to tell with him, but I actually kinda think it was the former, just because Hank always makes an appearance in his post-'91 work, especially his alternate timelines, and he was clearly interested in writing for him in X-Treme X-Men given he set up the Betsy romantic angle early, but then Morrison snatched him up.
Hank also got pushed into the role of the naysayer during the Fraction and Bendis era, which is an instant rock around the neck for your popularity. A lot of the arguments that Hank makes about why he doesn't like what Scott does and how he runs the X-Men and Utopia are not necessarily wrong?
Like, X-Force is just plain morally bad. It is.
You can make the argument that it's necessary, but these two things can exist at the exact same time, which appears to be a concept that people do not grasp! And especially, like . . . the X-Men are not an army. They are a voluntary paramilitary group that is, ostensibly, dedicated to mutant rescue, outreach, and general superheroics.
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You are not obliged to stay.
Hank was suffering from legitimate PTSD flashbacks, he was wracked with guilt over the Skrull bioweapon (which, notably, sticks to Hank but does NOT stick to Scott), he was very obviously depressed, recovering from torture - and when he reached out to Bobby to try and explain how he was feeling, draw some comfort, Bobby basically just told him to deal with it!
But this made him SO FUCKING UNPOPULAR. You can go to comics sites that have comments under this issue, under the issue where Hank is having PTSD flashbacks, and they'll be like, THIS IS WHERE IT ALL BEGAN, and I'm like???????? The fuck are you saying to me?????? WHY ARE YOU BOOING HIM HE'S RIGHT.
There's also a degree to which I think that, whether the writers have realised it or not, they do not usually put in the work to establish that the X-Men are doing their due diligence to make sure that Hank is okay. They rely a LOT on off-screen things happening to fill in the blanks. A short list of things that we have never seen!
The reaction from the O5 when Hank first turned furry.
The reaction from the Mansion X-Men when Hank turned into a cat.
Anyone going to visit Hank in the infirmary when he was recovering from his fur and claws falling out due to torture.
Anyone expressing concern over the fact that during the whole time travel debacle, Hank was dying and did not tell anyone.
You don't see these moments, and these are fucking important! These make you sympathetic to the character! These are the moments where people look at Beast in pain, suffering because of what's happened to him, going through his emotional arcs, showing strength as he perseveres, THAT is what builds a fanbase and keeps a fanbase engaged with a character - but they just stop happening for Hank. You don't see them. He loses his characterisation moments, they just happen off-panel.
But what do you see? You see a lot of people walk into Hank's lab, they receive words of wisdom and comfort, or a scientific solution for their problems, and then they walk out.
Like, Hank from Avengers vs. X-Men onwards reads as just - psychologically unstable. He does things on impulse, he reacts without talking to people, he does not have strong relationships with anyone, he appears to have broken up with his long time girlfriend (for no specified reason, we still don't know why 9 YEARS LATER), he often appears adrift and lost and unhappy.
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And we are TOLD during his intervention that people have talked to him about what's going on, and they were ignored, but, like, I'm sorry, FUCK OFF, SHOW YOUR GODDAMN WORK.
If you want your emotional moments to have any bite, then you need to ESTABLISH things!!! When Ororo says, oh, you're just ignoring everyone, I'm like, FUCKIN' SHOW ME WHEN YOU TALKED TO HIM. Because do you know what I DID see?
I saw Hank being the most comforting and lovely and soft individual in Storm's solo series, being there for her after Logan's death, BASICALLY BECOMING HER SECRETARY BECAUSE SHE WANTS TO FUCK OFF AND BE A THIEF, and then BOOM, suddenly, she's like, you're a fucking loose cannon.
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This was, like, a few months apart. Editors? Hello? Does Ororo fucking hate Hank or not? Because Bendis seems to be of the opinion that she does, but Greg Pak does not appear to have gotten the memo! HELLO? EDITORS? There's a big fucking GAP here where a story arc is meant to go???
There's so much of Hank's 2012-onward story that we just AREN'T shown. Like, he and Scott just - patch up their differences over the revolutionary thing OFF-PANEL during Hickman's Avengers. You don't even see the conversation. He agrees to try and work on the M-Pox cure, MOVES TO ATTILAN TO HELP THEM, all because Storm (WHOM, LAST WE SAW, WAS THREATENING TO PUT HIM IN PRISON FOR CRIMES AGAINST NATURE) convinced him to . . . and WE DO NOT SEE THIS CONVERSATION.
Every time someone pulls out the 'oh, this has been an expertly played baton pass of writers depicting Hank's moral downfall,' I just want to fucking pick up shit and fling it in their face, because they could not be more wrong.
Do you know who's read more Beast comics than these fuckers?
Me. It's me.
Believe me, if there was an actual DEPICTION of ANY of these MASSIVE emotional moments in Hank's life, I would LOVE to talk about them and agree. But they do not exist. It's a character being used as a narrative prop to justify writing decisions that otherwise wouldn't make sense (Inhumans vs. X-Men, All-New X-Men), and no-one cares because he was never that popular to begin with.
And it just - frustrates me, because, like, did you know that Hank formed a political advocacy group for mutant rights?
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Did you know he was present during sessions of Congress, giving his support to pro-mutant legislation and becoming long time friends with multiple politicians?
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But because it's in New Defenders, because it's in Secret Avengers, and no-one READ those issues, they don't care! It doesn't matter to them! Hank has, by and large, within the narrative, done SO MUCH for mutant rights, he has ACTIVELY worked for them within the system SO HARD, but because it isn't done with an optic blast or a big punchy fist in an X-Men book, it doesn't count.
And like, I just . . . the last few appearances before he starts being focused on in X-Force, before the heel turn, he is NOT acting like an asshole!
Laura literally calls him the nerd she can trust and he takes pictures of her and Gabby being cute during a party!
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He's helping Banshee recover from his Apocalypse corruption and teaching at Harvard, trying to actively retire from superhero work because he's exhausted!
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He's telling Captain Marvel, hey, you're wrong about your precognition bullshit in Civil War II, and he's helping Spider-Man with science problems, and he SAVES THE INHUMAN CIVILISATION SINGLEHANDEDLY!
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So many writers are trying to steer him back onto course. Not just Avengers books, either, X-Men books! There's, like, TWO, THREE writers who want to push evil, asshole Beast, and everyone else is just like, uhhh, nooo? But because the X-office do not care, they keep getting their chance. They don't care about protecting Beast's reputation, or his stories, or his legacy. He's just a character to be thrown wherever he'll fit.
So you get the narrative that he was always evil. He was decaying all along.
No, it's bullshit. It's literally the Scarlet Witch story again, where it just HAPPENS in fits and starts to kick off events and stories, regardless of whether or not it makes sense for past characterisation or continuity.
So, yeah. It's a combination of the X-office not really caring about protecting the image of the character, and certain writers just doing shoddy, shitty jobs of writing emotional checks that their asses weren't willing to cash.
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aerkame · 3 months
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Hey there! I have a bit of an unusual question for you, but I'm curious to know if you have a favorite or least favorite type of Alternate Universes. I'm not referring to any particular fandom, but just in general. Personally, I'm not really into the "Opposite" or "Swap personality" AUs that tends to be one of the most popular and picked in fanbases or other media explore. It's just not my cup of tea, you know? But I'm interested in hearing your thoughts!
Ooo, I like this ask! I will happily answer as this one really got me thinking.
Personally, I am not a fan of swap AUs either, I think the one exception was 2015-2016 Undertale when I was a teen and the fandom was lively. Other than that I have not seen any fandom do this AU well at all. The same can be said about Soulmate AUs. While a lot of fics written for them are sweet, they do get boring and predictable. I guess I'm a reader that prefers unique experiences in fanfictions. I really like it when I see other writers use as much creativity as possible when making an AU or writing a fanfiction. It's even better when I read a fanfiction that not only adds onto the characters, but a writer who does an excellent job at keeping everyone in character.
But there are certain AUs I will actively avoid out of experience, and those AUs are usually horror and NSFW AUs. It's not that they scare or disgust me, it's the issue that they often attract people who are not well.
Every fandom has a sub-group of bad apples, but it's those AUs that really bring them out. I do see that the creators of these AUs are okay and mature enough to be making the serious topics taken seriously, but it's usually certain individuals that ruin things by making fanfics off of it or fanart. Way too many times I've read a fic with no warnings for AUs like that. Or at the very least, they do give warnings, just not proper ones. However, at least once, I think it was in the Overwatch fandom (not Overwatch 2, I mean Overwatch from around 2016-2019), that I came across a very well done monster AU of sorts. It had a healthy community going around it and any horror fics based on it were handled with maturity and taken seriously. Not to mention some of the fanfictions really gave me a good scare. That is what I love to see with writers and AUs.
Now, for my absolute favorites?
I am so in love with aquatic mythology AUs with the exception of mermaid AUs. Many Mermaid AUs tend to be picked a lot much like how you mentioned swap AUs being the same, usually that results in a bunch of fanfictions being similar or the exact same. I love AUs that have unique or exotic mythology for the AU. I guess a good example would be my Finfolk AU. That was inspired after I read an Orkney folklore storybook. It's nothing like mermaids and the folklore surrounding it can be changed to match whatever setting I want.
Some of the most notable ones I've read were semi-horror romance fanficions based on siren AUs. I also notice that people who write these fanfictions also take great care to research their sources or come up with new features to sirens that makes sense for the universe they are in. I could rant on about it, but I'll be here all night if I do. I hope this answer is satisfactory!
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Ahoy Steph 🙌, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and what kind of tropes and stories you enjoy? Wanna get to know a little more about who is behind the blog if you don't mind🤸
Hey Nonny!
Sorry for the delay in a reply... just haven't "felt it" the past couple months, and after a nice 2 week break (and now a slow day at work), I feel more up to answering a long-form ask today, LOL.
So, I won't reveal too much about myself that isn't already public, since I try to keep my online and personal lives separate (and I come from an age where people usually DID do this because no one needs to know every little bit about you). The basics are that I'm a 41-year-old Canadian dork who loves video games, animation, movies, drawing, writing, and making music. I'm a graphic designer by trade, and have been for nearly 20 years, and I love it (if you need something designed or laid out, hit me up, I freelance on the side for extra spending money). I love dragons and puppies and kitties. I've been in fandom spaces for as long as I can remember, even before the internet. First major fandom I was a part of was Sonic the Hedgehog in my teen years, used to be a pretty popular writer back then. I moved on to Darkwing Duck in my 20s, then TMNT and then Sherlock (I'm a fan of a TONNE more things, but these were the active fanbases I had a presence in). These days I'm more of a lurker than actively participating, though Sherlock has been the longest one I haven't really moved on from. I like the casualness of what I've built here, and I think that's been a huge benefit for my mental health.
Hmm... my fave food is mac and cheese, but had to cut back on it a lot, so these days it's mostly chicken, lol. Fave dessert is cheesecake. Again, not supposed to eat it because of the dairy and sugar, so if I make it, I use lactose-free cheese. I treat myself once-a-year on my birthday, usually.
My current dream is to own a home. I've been trying to make it happen for almost 10 years now, and every time I get close, the goal-post gets shifted as housing prices skyrocket. It makes me very sad.
My dream holiday is a Disney cruise OR somewhere tropical; wanted to do these since I was 20. Secondary dream WAS going back to Disney World for my 40th, but now it's for my 45th or 50th, hopefully with SOMEONE (no one wants to go with me, hence the back-burner on this one). Listen, I know how awful Disney is. I just... really loved being there. It's easy to forget a lot of things when you're there. Third dream is a cross-country LITERAL nostalgia road trip with my sister. We used to go on 2-week-long, cross-Canada road trips when we were kids, and I just... want to kind of relive those, y'know? Lots of fond memories. Again, something that's just a dream because while my sister wants to do it, she doesn't want to be an alternate driver, so. Yeah, I can't do the driving alone.
Uh... Hmm. Not sure what else I should talk about here, if there's something specific y'all want to know, just ask :)
As for fave tropes, I love fake relationship fics the most, I think, followed by pining and movie rewrites with characters... I'm actually pretty easy-going when it comes to tropes, really. Willing to read any trope at least once to see if I like it.
Oddly, though, I prefer stories that are SUPER in-character (to how I read them, anyway) AND focus a lot on character studies and relationships with other characters. Novel-length stories are usually the best for it, but shorter ones can be too. I prefer fanfics more these days because I don't have to think about how these characters SHOULD be and focus more on the world that the author created. When I do read published novels, though, they're usually fantasy books. One of my fave series ever is the Inkheart Trilogy. Just an easy read from book one.
Yeah, so that's a little bit about me, to start off 2023 AND for any newbies that have just recently found me.
Thanks again for your curiosity :) Again, if you have anything you want more elaboration on, I can at my discretion.
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moinsbienquekaworu · 11 months
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i'm sorry for spamming your inbox please tell me to stop if i'm bothering you--
what even is the whole official star wars stuff. like except from the... nine? main movies that i all watched many times (i mean... "many" is for the first 6 but whatever), there is uhh rogue one? and solo right? i don't think i watched it. but like. there are shows too right? i never heard of those except that there is so much star wars lore that probably comes from ✨️ somewhere ✨️ (i hope). so what do i need to watch?? is there an order?? is there like. idek. things i have to know before diving into this? i feel like if you try to go away from the 6 (9) main movies you're immediatly going to get lost in the most crazy shit ever and never return from it and i'm ✨️ scared ✨️ and ✨️ lost ✨️ and ✨️ need help ✨️
also i spent the whole day reading kylux fics, like that's literally all i did, i'm way too prone to addictions it's scary (i'm glad the exams are behind me lol)
i love ✨️ sparkles ✨️ btw
One of us one of us ONE OF US!!!! I got you!!! Comme quoi it pays to be insane about stuff you like online. Anyway. Never worry about bothering me I am mentally ill about things on here for people to come up to me and say hi me too. I rewrote this a few times but it shoouuld be somewhat coherent.
Okay first there is objectively too much SW stuff for a normal person coming in right now with stuff to do during the day to go through in its entirety. The main stuff are the 6/9 main movies, which you've seen so you're good on that... and now I'm going to establish the concept of canon vs legends. If you've heard people talk about the extended universe/univers étendu, that's the old name of legends, but basically they're two different timelines. Canon is the 9 main movies, the The Clone Wars stuff, and everything serious Disney has done since they bought the franchise: Rogue One and Solo, and the TV shows Rebels, The Bad Batch, The Mandalorian (& The Book of Boba Fett), Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Andor. This is the timeline you're familiar with, but it's recent. Before this became the accepted canon, the 'official' 'true' version of events, there was just the extended universe/legends stuff, basically authorised fancy published fanfic, and sometimes one of the concepts created in those books/comics/games/role-playing games was made canon by being included in the more official, Lucas-made stuff, or was considered canon by the fanbase because most people were aware of the thing and liked it (like Mara Jade, Luke's wife in the legends timeline, who doesn't exist in canon). Basically if Lucas/Disney made it OR it's super popular it's canon otherwise it's just kind of fanfic that's tolerated as long as it doesn't contradict the canon stuff. I hope that was clear enough lol
So there's the main movies, and after that the most popular movies & shows are The Clone Wars (2008). There was a Clone Wars 2D series in 2003 but we're talking about the 2008 3D film and the following TV series here (though Anakin's design is funky in 2003 CW, but it shows different events because it's a legends series not a canon one). The movie is set at the start of the Clone Wars, a little after episode 2, and it introduces one of the most famous SW characters that's not even mentioned in any of the movies. Ahsoka Tano is Anakin's Padawan, she's a cool looking alien, chatty, she's like 5 years younger than him, and she starts out cringey but the general consensus on her is everyone likes her (that's because her creator, Dave Filoni, was in charge of most of the series, and you can tell he really played favourites with his OCs, and since she's not really a Mary Sue she's just extremely cool). If you're interested in the Prequels era you have to be aware of her at minima. You've probably seen art of her, her design is super cool. Ahsoka appears in TCW, but also in Rebels, the Mandalorian & Book of Boba Fett, and she's going to get her own series this year.
The thing with TCW is the first like, 3 seasons are generally "lighthearted" fluff about Jedi life and the war and the clones (as lighthearted as you get during a war, let's say it doesn't feel Super Serious because you know they all make it), but seasons 4 and 5 are closer to the end of the war and get more serious episodes, and then seasons 6 and 7 I haven't seen yet but they're I presume even less lighthearted and even more plotty. There was also a huge gap in when the seasons came out, which explains the tone differences, notably for S7 which is kind of not about the war anymore but just about Ahsoka and what she does after the Empire's rise I think? I'll give you detailed episodes but at least the episodes people recommend watching are the stuff with (Darth) Maul (you're into men so there's a good chance you will be into him - I'm ace and I regularly experience the closest thing I can to sexual attraction when I see him on screen because they animated him in a very...... in a Way that is. yeah), and then probably the 2/3/4 episode arcs that tell a coherent story (Rako Hardeen, Umbara, Zygerria, the Clovis stuff, the baby Padawans on Illum, 99, the Ahsoka stuff at the end of S5, etc). Personally I think the movie might be worth it to establish the characters, it's not super good but at least that way you have an idea of who's who. Once again I'll give you a list with all the details later, but I'm assuming you're not going to want to watch the like, hundred episodes when a good part of that is 'Ahsoka looses her lightaber and learns an Important Lesson about Patience retrieving it', 'R2 & 3PO go on an errand for three episodes' or 'droids are incompetently looking for a mcguffin for four episodes'. There's like an episode that explains why Chewie and Yoda know each other I think too, so that's neat if you're interested. The short answer is that Yoda fought on Kashyyyk during the war and that's Chewie's planet. I'll bury it here but if you want a good website to watch stuff, r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH has lists of sites that work (I recommend watching/reading SW stuff in english personally)
You mentioned Rogue One and Solo in your ask so I'll talk about these too: Rogue One is generally thought to be really good (at least in my circles?), it's set right before ep4, the characters are good, and generally it's a recommended watch. Personally I liked it, though not as much as other people seemed to, but the central romance is neat, and I cried at the end (and everyone liked Chirrut, for good reasons). Solo is kind of less good, but one of the main characters gave me adult movie Remus vibes in a way, it has a Maul appearance at the end for the people who watched TCW, and it gives unnecessary backstory for Han. Also Donald Glover looks good.
The Mandalorian is I think a pretty good entry point to the universe, at least seasons 1-2, because the main character doesn't know anything about the lore of the universe, so the show explains who's who what's what and all that. That said season three came out a few months ago and I haven't seen that so I don't know how badly they fucked it up, but they already pulled a shitty one on the audience by having like three crucial extremely plot relevant episodes of the show after the climax of S2 happen in another show, The Book of Boba Fett, instead of putting them in S3, so. Yeah. The other animated shows I haven't watched yet, Rebels is apparently really good but in universe it's set after TCW so I want to finish TCW before I get started there (it's been like a year or two since I started TCW, I'm slow), and The Bad Batch get much more mixed reviews so eh, you can see about that one later, it's less important in the general story of the world anyway. Andor was apparently a masterpiece but I can't say cause I haven't seen it. Visions also is a thing, haven't seen it but it's like, anime loosely set in the SW universe? It looks cool. If you're interested in Padawan stuff, there's Tales of the Jedi, which didn't make a lot of waves I think but has episodes focusing on Qui-Gon and episodes focusing on Ahsoka.
I'm going to give it its own paragraph cause in the Obikin sphere (which I am in obviously) this show was a divine miracle but the Obi-Wan Kenobi show, though it got shat on by other fans for being too silly or something, was to me really good. I feel like it really goes in depth with the Anakin-Obi-Wan relationship, and I remember every time an episode dropped my dash would be full of gifs of new interactions and new lines of dialogue of them being absolutely insane about each other canonically for real. It was wild, it was great, it was a fantastic high. It's 6x 1h, so I think it's fairly watchable compared to all the other longer stuff. It's more about the personal relationship between them, as people, but that's inevitably linked to the Master-Padawan relationship too (there's a good scene of them just before the war sparring at the Temple in episode... 4 if memory serves me right).
Then it's going to be mostly legends stuff, and at that level you just need to pick a direction and dig a little. Off the top of my head, here are different niches I've seen people be into/pists of where you might want to look: there's the old Jedi Apprentice books, aimed at a younger audience, that talk about Obi-Wan's padawanship, though they've been made explicitly non-canon by the recent Padawan book by Kiersten White (which was apparently good, and featured the one line where Obi-Wan says he wouldn't mind kissing any of his friend group but wouldn't want to do anything else, which prompted homophobes to explode and The Gays to celebrate even if we knew), or for more Qui-Gon-Obi-Wan stuff, there's the Master & Apprentice book; there's people who are way way into the clones, but that has more of a Marauders fandom vibe because individual clones don't get that much screentime, so you can see people whose fave is the equivalent of Dorcas Meadowes and who just make their own stuff up in their corner; there's the Mandalorians fans, which I personally cannot stand the majority of because most of the legends Mando stuff (that might have been made non-canon by S3 of the Mandalorian?) was written by Karen Traviss, a woman whom I personally do Not vibe with (come back for the rant later if you're interested), but that's a possibility too, you do you; there's the novelisations of the movies, though the only one that I hear about is the ep3 novelisation by Stover which is a really great piece of literature... and also very homoerotic with the Anakin-Obi-Wan relationship; there's the Aftermath trilogy which makes the transition between ep6 and ep7 and explains how we went from no Empire to the First Order, with cool characters (ie Sinjir whom I love and who is canonically if subtly gay); if you're curious about legends stuff and you want to know who Mara Jade and Thrawn are (if you've never heard their names before they're really popular, Thrawn appears in Rebels as well, he's cool and part of a popular ship in the wider fandom) you'll want to read Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn (also introduced the name Coruscant for the capital!). Obviously I am Highly Biased, this is stuff I know off the top of my head, but it should let you explore some different eras and characters. Heir to the Empire (& the rest of the books in that series) is definitely a classic in terms of legends stuff though, if you want to check out the fan favourites.
For comics I don't really read those so you'd have better luck either looking at rec lists online or just wandering around Wookieepedia until you find something that looks cool, but if you just want to read a quick thing, the Age of Star Wars series is neat. It's a series split in the three trilogies eras, and in each era it focuses on 4 heroes and 4 villains. Age of Republic has issues for Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, Anakin & Padmé + Maul, Jango, Dooku & Grievous; Age of Rebellion for Leia, Han, Lando & Luke + Tarkin, Boba, Jabba & Vader; Age of Resistance for Finn, Poe, Rose & Rey + Phasma, Hux, Snoke & Kylo. If any of those interest you, you can find them on comics websites (like for example a website that would let you read comic online. for example. cough cough. I'm so subtle.) What I would NOT recommend are the Rise of Kylo Ren comics, they're just... I didn't like the artstyle, I didn't like the way it told the story of Kylo falling to the dark side, I really didn't like the careless way it both makes Kylo's relationship with Snoke worse but also doesn't address it at all, it was a big miss for me, Kylux fanfics do it better. If you're curious it's not a long read though. Can't help you more with comics, I haven't gone there much.
In general if you find a character/planet/species/group/etc that interests you specifically, you can go on Wookieepedia and go down to the appearances section, where you can see all the places that thing appears/is mentioned, in I believe in-universe chronological order.
I don't think canon does a lot of explaining the magic if you will, if it does I don't know where. You can try looking in a specific species' tag on here to check out what other people think of their biology maybe, but yeah I don't really know otherwise. In general canon does a lot of 'that guy's a spider. don't ask. shut up he's a spider that walks on his legs and that's it. no lore no culture no nothing he looks cool and evil. bam. we're killing him next episode anyway' but there are also 'little diagrams of the different parts of a lightsaber' moments (I know there's a drawing in the The Jedi Path book somewhere of the anatomy of Obi-Wan's saber). Good luck with that, I wouldn't know where to find it.
If you have questions you can look at @/gffa's sidebar to check out questions they've answered/what they rec, or ask them directly. They're The ressource for SW stuff in my mind, because they're pretty thorough when they answer I feel like. Once again, Obikin bias, be warned, but maybe they'll know where there's some more scientific stuff? They certainly read more than me haha.
I think that's all, I'm going to write down a non-exhaustive but very long list of TCW episodes I think are neat, with a summary behind to help you quickly decide if it's your jam or not. The order is arbitrary, it's half order of importance half chronological, but there's nothing specific from seasons 6-7, because I haven't seen them yet. (the format is episode number x season number, just in case)
Undoubtedly, the Maul stuff: that's the events of ep 5x16, which rest on eps 1, 14 & 15x5 (the start of the plotline that leads to the events), which themselves rest on eps 19-20-21-22x4 (who are the characters that are important and what are they doing here), but also on eps 12-13-14x2 (who are the other characters and what are they doing here), and on the other episodes where Ventress appears, but you can ignore her, just know that the bald lady with the red lightsabers is Dooku's apprentice early on before they part ways (but she's still a bad guy afterwards)
Random stuff that isn't too heavy: 6-7x1, Anakin looses R2 and goes looking for him; 11-12x1, which has some fun Anakin-Obi-Wan-Dooku banter AND Hondo (everyone likes Hondo); 17-18x1 which have the threat of death hanging over the main characters because of an evil scientist and some cool alien designs; (19-)20-21x1, the Ryloth arc where you can see clones being nice and the Jedi being cool, plus Twi'leks (I put the first episode of the arc in parentheses because it's not necessary to watch it to get the idea of what's going on); 8x2 which is the last part of a 5-ep storyline about mind-controlling brain worms, I recommend it because you'll probably like the interactions between Ahsoka and her friend Bariss + Bariss gets relevant waaay later; 16x2 which has the spider guy I mentioned that I like a lot and a bit at the start where I honest to god thought for a split second Obi-Wan and Anakin were going to kiss; 9x3, it follows 22x1 but you can go in kinda blind, it's just a little buckwild with its characters and I think you'll like Quinlan (if you do he appears more in some books & comics, and he's in fanfics a lot because he and Obi-Wan have a fun dynamic)
The Clovis stuff: Rush Clovis is an ex friend of Padmé that Anakin is really jealous of, he appears in 4x2 (and comes back in 5-6-7x6) and if you want to see Anakin behave like a jealous shit that's a good episode.
The Zillo Beast arc! 18-19x2, includes a big beastie, Palpatine being evil and kicking a dog (the beastie) to prove it, and Anakin's disability being visible. I give it here because it's often a trope in fics to have Palpatine killed by the Zillo Beast but it's not plot significant.
Clones stuff if you're interested: 5x1, with the first appearance of a group of clones that come back later; 10x2, it's part two of a plotline but the interesting clone stuff is mostly just in part two, in it there's an exploration of the clones outside of war (which they have literally been designed and created for); 1-2x3, introduce 99 who's neat and are mostly focused on clones
Padawan Lost arc: 21-22x3, Ahsoka being hunted for sport (literally), she kicks ass, and Chewie + another character I like show up in ep22
the Umbara arc: 7-8-9-10x4, a Jedi General is a real asshole to the clones we like, it's a little heavier and you can feel the transition from lighthearted start of the war stuff to the more depressing stuff that comes afterwards
the Zygerria arc: 11-12-13x4, the arc in which Obi-Wan gets hit & injured every episode I think, with cool designs because there's more Togruta and they look cool (warning though the Zygerrians are slavers, they enslave people). There's a cool moment at the end for Rex if you end up liking him (he's Anakin & Ahsoka's clone captain and one of the most important clones)
the Rako Hardeen arc: 15-16-17-18x4, more Obi-Wan violence! it's one of the arcs Obikin tumblr doesn't shut up about because basically Obi-Wan fakes his death and doesn't tell Anakin. It could have been better but it's trying something for sure
the Onderon stuff: 2-3-4-5x5, it's Ahsoka dealing with Romance (a little bit, the character she has Romance stuff with is already established from earlier seasons but you don't need to know him, just know he has a history with Ahsoka and he used to be a Separatist, ie on the wrong side) and I think you could like Steela & Saw Gerrera? Saw appears in Rogue One later on, but he's from TCW. The arc is about helping him, his sister and their people regain control of their planet.
the younglings: 6-7-8-9x5, little Jedi kiddos who go on their first big adventure to get their lightsaber crystal and then have to fight to come back home. They're really cute, the droid is voiced by David Tennant, and you can see Hondo in the last episode I think.
and finally, the arc you also gotta watch because it explains why Ahsoka isn't mentioned in ep3 when she was Anakin's Padawan and this boy gets attached way too fast: 17-18-19-20x5, which begins with Ahsoka and Anakin investigating a bombing in the Jedi Temple and ends with Ahsoka leaving. I put off watching it for so long because it's sad :(((
probably also the rest of the seasons, but you'll have to look at Wookieepedia descriptions to see if something sounds interesting (if I were you I'd focus on the Ahsoka stuff later on, apparently she does some cool interesting stuff). Wookieepedia has pages for every season and every episode with short & detailed summaries.
That'll be all, congrats on reading all that, ask me about stuff if you want I love never shutting up about this, I have discord if you want to chat, please give me impressions if you do end up watching/reading anything. Good luck with this monstrosity of a list lol.
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yanderefairyangel · 6 months
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Hello, I just found this blog and I wanted to say how much I enjoy reading your thoughts/analyses. They're really spot-on and are perfect food for my Alear brainworms dbsjjshs
Also thanks for making a list of other Engage accounts, I'll follow them and finally curate my online experience to include more FE17 (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)
(just as a side note, do you also know any blogs/sites/forums that focus on Rafal/Alear? Tumblr search isn't doing me any favors and there isn't much on AO3 •́⁠ ⁠ ⁠‿⁠ ⁠,⁠•̀)
Anyway, I hope you'll have a good start into the week!! (⁠ノ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ノ⁠*⁠.⁠✧
Thank you for the very kind feedback !
I am happy to hear that you enjoy hearing my gush about Alear (best FE protag ever).
Also thanks for making a list of other Engage accounts, I'll follow them and finally curate my online experience to include more FE17 (⁠ ⁠ꈍ⁠ᴗ⁠ꈍ⁠)
No problem ! I hear a lot of other fans complaining it's not easy to find other people speaking about Engage, so I'd though of making it, I might try to include more people if needed !
(just as a side note, do you also know any blogs/sites/forums that focus on Rafal/Alear? Tumblr search isn't doing me any favors and there isn't much on AO3 •́⁠ ⁠ ⁠‿⁠ ⁠,⁠•̀)
Rafal/Alear ? Oh you mean my mental illness ? Yeah, from what I saw there is like one fanfic on AO3. That's kind of a weird situation but this ship has rare pair status in the Westernian side of the fandom. Underated gem if you ask me : sunshine cinnnamon roll and a tsundere ?! Sign me up ! But that's mainly because of how Rafal isn't very popular because IntSys in their infinite wisdom made him a DLC character ... one of the best FE character ever, insane chemistry with Alear and they made him a DLC...*sight*
You might have more chance if you look in the JPn side of the fanbase because here the ship is like 3rd or 4th most popular sharing a spot with Alear/Alcryst (1st most popular is Alear/Alfred and 2nd most popular is Diamant/Alear) so you'd have to look on pixiv/poipikku and Twitter X. Jpn ship tags are ラファリュ/ イルリュ andリュラファ/リュイル .
If I recall @elysianstars also said they like that ship ?
Anyway, thanks for your kind words !
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mihai-florescu · 2 years
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I actually find the phenomenon around fanfiction fascinating. I may not read much myself anymore, but it's still interesting to look at from an anthropological point of view. All types of literature operate on references and allusions, they're very basic literary devices, but fanfiction takes them to an extreme.
But on the other hand, I'm thinking about In Another Life rn, possibly the most popular Haikyuu fanfic out there, to the point where it has its *own* fanbase. It pretty much only takes some characters from Haikyuu but changes the settings, circumstances and motivations so drastically that it's unrecognizable save for the names and tag at the top of the ao3 description. Could that become a story of its own then? If you were to show it to someone who has never heard of Haikyuu, would they be able to enjoy it just as much? Who's to say, really. I'd love to make experiments though.
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What are your fav non-beetlejuice fanfics?
This is a tough question for me because I have so many ships and I read *everything* that is complete and M or E rated. So we're talking hundreds upon hundreds of fics here to choose from. Idk if I could realistically pick a favorite. I can tell you the ships I go back to the most because there is always new quality content springing up for them;
Sansa Stark/Sandor Clegane "The Hound" from Game of Thrones. Something about this fandom attracts really good writers, majority of fics I read are well written and well plotted
Beth Green/Daryl Dixon from The Walking Dead. TWD is STILL very popular and this ship is still thriving, new fics are being posted all the time
Jareth "The Goblin King"/Sarah Williams from Labyrinth. This is the ship that will never die. Its fanbase is massive and well-educated with all their different tropes and theories. There is a constant flow of new fics for this ship, all of them unique because the magical Labyrinth universe allows for the imagination to stretch far. Even the not-so-unique plots (Sarah is too late rescuing Toby and has to stay in the Labyrinth in his place, oh no 🤤) are a joy to read over and over again.
Sorry it took me so long to reply, I just have way too many fav fics to possibly answer this ask the way you would like. My bad. I hope this is helpful for you.
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possumteeths · 2 years
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Self Promo Fic Game: tagged by @some27-url 😚
Rules: We would like to ask you to recommend us 3 of YOUR fics: 1 that is "most popular" and 2 that are "hidden gems”!
Im gonna use all fallout fics because honestly when I think of my favorite things, my brain jumps to fallout lol.
WARNING! These are all rated E, I’m writing filth okay!
Most “Popular”: I guess my nasty vulpes stories lol?
Since he’s such a niche character this series made me a buncha fanfic mutuals and friends haha. I’m glad other bitches wanna see this dude suffer hornilly lol. Im counting this as most popular only amongst the niche fanbase of vulpes girlies who’s favorite thing is torturing him lmfao
Hidden Gem 1: My raider gangbang smutl!!
I’m honestly really surprised how nice people are when commenting on this! Its literally an angry milf getting railed by 15 idiot prettyboy raiders and for an oc/ oc type of story I was pretty prepared for nobody to read this at all? I love this story, its funny and surprisingly cute. I had so much fun designing all these idiot raiders and giving them all their own nasty habits. I got tired of reading stories about like the whole raider sexual coercion type of vibe so I decided to make a story where its a lady coercing raiders to do her bidding and giving them a crumb of pussy in exchange. Shes an icon, I love her!
Hidden Gem 2: Okay hear me out, a plucky wasteland adventurer x a lonely fishman monster who’s got two dicks
This story is SO fun haha and I just wrapped it up. Its like a kitschy porny old pulp fiction novel. Its inspired by that comic you can find in fo4 the “Astoundingly awesome tales! Attack of the fishmen!” The wasteland needs more cryptids like cmon theres radioactive hell monsters everywhere there HAS to be something kinda sexy looking ok. Anyways this was completely self indulgent and once again I was totally surprised that people read this at all? I cant imagine people are searching “Female Sole Survivor x Mirelurk King” so therefore i’m counting this as a hidden gem lmao. If you read this please mind the tags, its got some freaky shit going on! It ends cute though, I refuse to write anything besides happy endings!
tagging friends that I can remember who write fallout: @gaeadene @istalkpeople @ladyflaggermus Anybody else who wants to do this pls play! Mass effect or dragon age peeps are super welcome to participate and tag me so I can see you hyping urself up!!
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okamirayne · 1 year
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Some random Qs for you! 1. What are your fave fanfic tropes/ao3 tags and why? guilty pleasure or otherwise. I’m a sucker for angst with a happy ending or pretty much any popular trope that’s angsty 2. Do you have any sort of process when it comes to developing a character, or getting into the characters head? What does that look like? 3. I see those merlin gifs you be posting, is that new? Tell me why you love them Rayne. ❤️Lots of love from someone whose been a fan for over 10 years❤️
Well hello there, my lovely Random Q Anon! ❤️ Thanks for swinging by my happy haunt. I hope this reply finds you well. ^_^
1. What are your fave fanfic tropes/ao3 tags and why? guilty pleasure or otherwise.
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Oh, like you, Anon, I too worship at the Altar of Angst.
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While I'm paying my respects at said altar, throw me some hurt/comfort; a meaty slow burn; time-honoured 'enemies to lovers'; great humour; bromance; intimate m/m slashy goodness with some raw yang energy and I'm all but singing Hozier's "Take me to Church."
As for why? Well, combine all those things together and for me it creates a rich and dynamic experience I can really sink my teeth into. Sure, PWP can be fun, a quick-hit pick-me-up...but it often leaves me jonesing for the stronger stuff. Because I do love layered intimacy in the fics I read, especially with the m/m slash pairings. The edge of vulnerability that never loses its capacity to turn, like a blade, from smooth steel to the razor’s edge...then back again...
From something as intimate as this...
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...to this....
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....to this....
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I especially gravitate towards such a dynamic when reading my m/m pairings. And you'll probably notice most of these pairings (90%) are with warrior/soldier archetypes.
They are my sweet remedial poison.
As for the altar, there's something about the angst that nourishes me. And ruins me. I'm pretty sure there's some eloquent quote about that delicious interplay and the feeling it evokes. Don't get me wrong, I hate when things slide into emo-depresso mode. There's a difference between depth and darkness. I like the deep. Doesn't always have to be dark.
2. Do you have any sort of process when it comes to developing a character, or getting into the characters head? What does that look like?
It looks like headphones on, eyes closed (or vacant stare, ha, either works as I zone out)....and total immersion into the character. Obviously this varies depending on whether I am tackling an OC or whether I'm writing fanfic. The former is a hell of a lot more immersive for me. The latter involves getting into their established trivia/meat and digging under their skin. OCs require a whole different level of madness from me. I need to get in their bones and their blood...and yeah, I realise how sadomasochistic I'm sounding right about now. But it's true. Unless I have a physical ache in my body where my OCs carry their wounds, their ghosts, or their shadows, I'm not satisfied I can do them justice on the page. So yeah, certifiable processes are required for me to channel that. 🤪
3. I see those merlin gifs you be posting, is that new? Tell me why you love them Rayne. ❤️
...Tell me what you love, it'll tell me who you are, right? *head-tilt* You're intriguing me, Anon. Have we spoken before? 10 years is a long time to be a stranger, friend. I'm honoured and happy you've reached out to me here...assuming you haven't before. You feel oddly familiar to me. And yeah, that is your cue to run far, run fast! *laughs*
Right you are. My Merlin indulgence is indeed new. And ah...why do I love them?
Here we go...
Because I never expected to. I literally went into this show for the mindlessness of old-school, corny-as-hell escapism -- I did not expect to fall for the characters
Because I love the sudden unguarded ways they will look at each other -- even if the writers are playing to the fanbase ;)
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I love what they bring out in each other
I love what they challenge in each other
I ache for the tragedy and secrets surrounding them
I adore the loyalty they exhibit; Merlin's devotion and Arthur's protectiveness...it belies the arrogant neglectful way Arthur behaves and hits on his deeper nature, beneath the princely surface
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I love Merlin's depth of feeling in all things (seriously, this actor draws me in with his capacity to convey emotion without a damn word) and how his sensitivity does not in any way diminish his strength -- the secrets he has to keep from Arthur are heart-rending at times
I love how hard Arthur clings to his pride and arrogance whilst his vulnerability often betrays him; in his eyes, his sudden rough humour, or in his unconscious actions.
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Their banter is good fun; especially the re-direct when things get too intimate or familiar, namely for Arthur.
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I love their integrity as people and how that integrity causes them to infuriate one another yet also how it cements them closer together
...I'm sure there are more reasons. I'm not yet finished with the series...so there will undoubtedly be more.
Look at that gushy list. You can tell I'm swimming in the feels of these two at the moment.
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Thank you for letting me share what I found in those depths. ❤️
Big love, hugs, and appreciation for you, Anon...over a decade's worth of it, given how long you've been a friendly presence in the wings. Bless you, and thank you, for letting me catch a glimpse of you ❤️.
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theharrowing · 1 year
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Oooh, so many interesting questions! 4, 13, 14, 25, 32, 38, 43, 44, 51 please. (oops kind of a lot lol. you can do less if you want!) what does 38 mean huh?? 43, my fav is koya despite being yoongi biased :/ i like sleepy/tired characters. i feel guilty for "betraying" my bias though lol
hello, anon!!! sorry for keeping you waiting, my dear! i am not shy so let's answer all of these hehe.
4. Current Bias?
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but also namjoon has been like.........sharing the throne??? so to speak????? i don't know. i just cry over men, that's all i know.
13. Any concert experience? 
yes! thanks to some generous friends, i got to go to PTD LA nights 1, 3 & 4! for 3 & 4, a gaggle of gals slept in my home (i even gave them my bed) so them scoring me a ticket definitely came with the guarantee of somewhere for them to sleep. 🥰🥰🥰 here are two of the first pics i found in my camera roll that looked cute enough to share:
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14. Funny moments that always make you laugh?
i answered this questions here too, but after some thought, the first thing that really made me laugh like i was dying was the run bts episode where jungkook made the sweet potatoes that stuck to the plate. he was my bias at the time too, and i was smitten by how fucking cute and silly he was. still makes me laugh all these (2 lol) years later. when jin got hit in the nuts with the air hockey puck. when suga unplugged the tv while jin was playing. they're pure chaos without even trying and i love them very much.
25. Do you read fanfics? If yes can you recommend one? 
i read a lot of fanfics! i just finished reading Stars Lost in the Sea by smiles and WOW THE ANGST i cried so much lmao, like so, so much. really great story. yoonjin, time travel, yearning. it was so good!
32. ______ (member) dream you had?
thinking about this makes me realize that recently jungkook was in a dream, but the plot is completely lost to me, and honestly, i'm a bit sad. i dream about them often. once i had a dream a very naked namjoon was beneath me (i was straddling his waist, p sure i clothes on lmao) and he was saying "show me how you fuck yoongi oppa" and then i woke up and had A LOT OF REGRETS!!!! (and if i put a similar scene in collateral 11 that's my own business.) (also, i'm older than yoongi and wouldn't call him oppa, but...my subconsciousness went for it.) my dreams aren't always sexual, though! sometimes we're just in come chaotic dream world doing chaotic things. but they are sexy occassionally. 😈
38. Your BTS guilty pleasure?
no, i am unabashedly am army lol. although many armys are embarrassing as hell and i steer clear of the drama and don't associate with them lmao. i think a guilty pleasure is something you like despite it not being popular, or despite people thinking it's not a good thing to like? and i don't think bts can even fit into that classification bc their fanbase is fucking huge. and they seem to genuinely be good people. but ig haters will say it's photoshop idk.
43. Favorite BT21 character?
honestly, shooky. I KNOW YOONGI IS MY BIAS but i don't like them bc of that lol i like them bc they're super cute and a vibe. they're a grumpy cookie and like............gosh, big fucking mood. i love them all tho, 10/10 very cute cuties. i dont even really collect plushies and i have 7 shookys lmao. and 1 rj.
44. BTS Merch you own or some you want to own?
i own a fair share. i have most cds, some dvds, some seasons greetings/winter packages. enamel pins, the coveted whale plushie, yoongi's necklace, joon's windchime, tae's enamel pins...a lot of washi tapes lol. the me, myself & i photobooks (thanks to one very generous beta reader.) 🥺
there's nothing i really want right now, tbh. i wasn't a collector before, so it's still kinda weird to me to want material possessions; i have been trying, more recently, to only get things i can wear or actually use bc i am a very broke college student, once again lol. i finally got the recipe book, and i'm really excited to use it!
51. If BTS were not Idols what job YOU believe they will choose?
hmm, this is a tough question. i could really see namjoon and yoongi as professors of some sort, or as therapists. jungkook would probably be a veterinarian. taehyung would own a very prestigious daycare center. hoseok and jimin would still be in the dance scene, somehow. seokjin would be a retired actor.
i could also see all 7 of them being twitch streamers or youtubers. seokjin and jungkook would play games. namjoon and yoongi would be philosophical. taehyung's channel would be chaotic with no theme. hoseok would model his latest clothing hauls and jimin would be a self-taught makeup artist.
ask me some BTS questions!!!!
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brokenjardaantech · 26 days
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For (one thing you want to know about me) ask!! We've been mutuals for years now (and I'm so lucky!🥰💕 love you!!) And I saw many posts from many fandoms on your blog! Which one between fandoms is your favourite? Like, which one you felt more close to characters or people in fanbase were kind and welcoming.
Thank you!!!💖💖💖💖
Thanks for the ask Merry! Love you too! <3
And man, it's difficult to say which fandom I like the most. Apart from DBH, I haven't really interacted with what I would think of as The Fanbase™, so for the sake of comparison I'll focus on the characters.
My favourite characters - if we talk about canon - are probably Death Stranding. I don't reblog stuff from that game often, but the humanity of the main cast is amazing, and the struggle against a quiet, unforgiving landscape... let's say it is A Vibe.
In terms of the favourite cast that I like to play with like a collection of dolls, however, I'll have to say Call of Duty. I'm only familiar with the reboot universe, but between mw19, mw2, and mw3, there is actually a lot of characters I can work on. It helps that the operators' backgrounds are on the vaguer side, which gives me a lot more room in terms of their backstory, characterisation, relationships, etc. Some of my interpretations are quite different from the so-called fanon though, and most of the characters I'm into aren't exactly the most popular ones anyway - e.g. my Otter/Wyatt fanfic is the second fic with the tag on ao3 and they've been around since mw19 - so most of my ideas exist either in Discord DMs or WIPs in my Google Drive. Maybe I'll finish another one some day. Idk if you've read the omegaverse aledolfo fic but by god that universe has expanded a lot since that fic and has got a lot darker too. I won't call my interpretations canon though, because again, the actual 'canon' of the operators can fit into half a sheet of A4 paper. Not saying I'm disregarding it though; I know ignoring canon is the approach of a lot of people, but for myself I prefer knowing the rules before breaking them. It's just more fun to me to work within the loose limits set by the information provided to us in the games.
When it comes to favourite cast to write, it's a tie between CoD and Mass Effect: Andromeda, the former because I always have fresh ideas and the characters are legit fun to play with (especially if you allow them to be toxic, make mistakes, and be their own self instead of shoving them into a select few tropes), the latter because I keep returning to them. Nothing grand about the MEA cast because most of my ideas are closer to slice-of-life things, but boy is CoD's dynamics fun to play around. The international politics. The implications of the different factions in mw19. The composition of the two PMCs in mw2. I know a lot of people try to stay on top of the politics, but why sanitise things when leaning hardcore into the political aspect makes the sandbox so much more interesting and dramatic?
I can go on for much longer, but what I have in mind will probably take days if not weeks to comb through. Anyways, hope I've answered your question, and feel free to ask any follow-up questions if you have any!
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fruitcoops · 3 years
Note
So this is sort of similar to the people writing fanfic about the lions but can you imagine the YouTube edits? Like the videos that are just "Cap having heart eyes for Loops for 10 minutes straight" or "Loops lovingly dragging Caps name through the mud for 3 minutes" like those kinds of things and I can just imagine them doing reaction videos and it just being funny and the world just loving coops
Okay so this wasn't a specific fic request but I got carried away with imagining videos and....here you go. SW credit goes to @lumosinlove, but Grace and Anna are mine! Bonus points to anyone who remembers the easter egg in this one!
Message From: Gracie
ANNA HOLY SHIT
Anna frowned at her phone screen, squinting to read around the spiderweb crack decorating the upper corner. She had tried to convince herself that it was cool, goth, edgy, but in the end she had to admit that it was just irritating. In a tragic turn of events, packing tape couldn’t fix everything.
Message To: Gracie
Wtf did I do
Two weeks of radio silence, then unexplained accusations. Anna shook her head as the grey bubble disappeared for a third time and turned back to her computer. Grace may have been her favorite cousin—and favorite person, if she was being honest—but very few things came between Anna and video editing. Especially editing for a Lions meme video. She had a whole 2,341 followers to attend to, after all.
Message From: Gracie
DID YOU SEE THE FUCKING INTERVIEW???
Message To: Gracie
Wow thank you so helpful
Message From: Gracie
Skip to 2:45 bestie
A link popped up just as Anna cut a segment from the sleep study video, where Loops’ heart eyes were in full effect. It was a rare, precious find for fan editors like herself.
“Come on,” she groaned. Maybe introducing Grace to the deepest parts of her hockey obsession was a mistake. But, really, what else was she supposed to do when she learned her cousin, who didn’t even live in Gryffindor, got to meet her favorite players just by chilling in a café? What kind of cosmic joke was that?
She narrowed her eyes at the embed of the link, then stifled a shriek. Impossible. How had she missed an upload?
As if on cue, her computer pinged with a new notification from the Lion Pride channel. “Oh, fuck me,” she muttered, scrambling to save her half-done video and pressing play.
The interviewer asked basic questions, ones she had heard the answers to a million times while curating her content. It always felt funny to hear people refer to Cap as ‘Sirius’—it was too official, too formal. She had spent countless hours on the compilations of his softer moments, and they were her most popular videos. Cap Having Heart Eyes for Loops for 10 Minutes Gay. Cap Being an Actual Puppy for Six and a Half Minutes. Everyone Wanting Cap Cuddles for Fifteen Minutes. Every Time Cap Smiles When Someone Mentions His Godson. The list was endless. She loved it.
She did a silent fist pump when she saw the interviewer had snagged both Cap and Loops; that would give her a whole new stream of workable content. If she was lucky, she could expand on her series of Loops Lovingly Roasting His Friends, part…fuck it, who was even counting anymore?
Anna was so caught up in her excitement that she nearly forgot about Grace’s suggestion. I’ve never skipped through a video on the first watch before, she thought hesitantly. But maybe just this once…
Her cursor hovered over the 2:45mark. She closed her eyes, and clicked it.
“—have you been adjusting to life as a celebrity?” the interviewer asked. Anna nearly rolled her eyes when Loops laughed. That question had been used far too often to be interesting anymore.
“It’s had its ups and downs,” Loops said with a smile. “Mostly, though, the fans have been incredible and just knocked my socks off with their support.”
“Really? What’s your favorite part of the Lions fanbase?”
He didn’t miss a beat. “Their creativity, for sure. There was a video a while back where we reacted to some of the comments people left, and this person on Twitter made an absolutely beautiful collage of photos.”
“I have it saved to my phone,” Sirius added.
One more clip for the simp video. Anna made a note on the small corner space of her European History notes. The degree can wait for ten more minutes.
“Do you have a favorite creator?”
The interviewer was clearly teasing, but Loops’ smile was genuine. “I don’t know about a favorite, but there’s this person on YouTube who makes a shit ton of videos and they’re hysterical. I saw one the other day about—god, what was it again?”
“Every time I smile when people mention Harry,” Sirius answered around a laugh. “Can you blame me?”
Anna didn’t hear the next question. A ringing noise filled her ears as she sat, frozen, on her shitty dorm mattress and listened to her literal heroes talk about her dorky little channel. “Holy fuck,” she blurted after a moment of silence. “Holy fuck.”
“—subscribed?” The man’s voice snapped her back to reality.
“Of course I am!” Loops said. “You think I’m passing up a chance to watch a compilation of my friends making stupid decisions for the entire internet to see?”
A noise that would have been a shriek if Anna had any breath left in her body escaped her lungs; she clamped a hand over her mouth and shakily exited from the video before going to her YouTube account. 800 new notifications. 700 new followers in the last quarter hour. She was pretty sure she blacked out for a second from sheer shock and joy.
Message To: Gracie
What
Message From: Gracie
You’re famous!
Message To: Gracie
What
Message From: Gracie
I bet he knows your stuff better than he remembers me tbh
“They know me,” she whispered, staring at her computer. The unfinished video showed a perfect frame of Loops’ soft smile as he watched Cap get his toothbrush stuck in his pajama shirt. Somehow, the thought was both exhilarating and horrifying. What if they thought she was a creep? She wasn’t, not really, just a bored college student with not enough free time for a job but too much to keep herself busy with schoolwork. Her 2,341—no, 3,052—followers were just other hockey nerds looking for time to kill.
And the subject of those videos was one of her subscribers.
Anna slipped her headphones back on and began to edit like it was her last day on earth. Her fingers flew across the keyboard on muscle memory while her brain fizzed. Perfect, she thought. It has to be perfect.
In four hours, it was done. She sat back, panting, then hunched over again and began tapping out a title card.
Hello. Idk if anyone saw the new Lion Pride video today (linked below if anyone wants to see why I’m dying right now) but apparently Remus Lupin is subscribed to this channel and has been for a while.
Hi Loops. I’m Anna. You met my cousin once and she said she liked your sweater.
Now that that’s out of the way, please enjoy the next five minutes of our new rookie being the sappiest mf in existence (except for his fiancé). Mr. Lupin, please tell Hattie I say hello.
She pressed upload, peeled her headphones off, and collapsed backward on her bed.
Message To: Gracie
If I die here, tell the world I did it doing what I loved
Message From: Gracie
Will do
OH FUCK YOU FOR BRINGING UP THE SWEATER I SOUND LIKE A CREEP
Anna covered her itchy eyes with her forearm and settled in for a long, long nap. Her brain still needed to repair a few circuits.
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fireemblems24 · 3 years
Text
Ao3 Ship Thoughts
To sate my desire to read Three Houses fan fiction and jump in on the shipping comments that have upticked recently, I decided to see what ships were the most popular on Ao3.
Some of it's exactly what I expected, and one in particular is just . . . what, why?
Ao3 is probably the closest you'll get to truly determining which ships are the most popular, or at least have the highest number of passionate fans. So I was curious to see who the top ships were. Here's the ones listed, in order:
Sylvain/Felix
Dimitri/Byleth
Edelgard/Byleth
Ferdinand/Hubert
Claude/Byleth
Dimitri/Felix
Dimitri/Claude
Felix/Annette
Caspar/Linhardt
Hilda/Marrianne
If I exclude the Byleth ships, Dimitri/Dedue, Byleth/Seteth, and Ingrid/Sylvain take up the three missing spots.
Byleth's Ships
I'm shocked. Really, truly shocked that Byleth/Lord is popular. Never wouldn't guessed. I am, of course, being sarcastic. If someone asked me to list who I think would show up in the top 10 most popular ships, the first three I'd list would be Byleth/Lord.
What I find more interesting is that Byleth/Seteth is the fourth option for Byleth. AO3 writers, I officially bow to your taste. It pleases me quite a bit that, if you're not going with one of the main lords, you all want Seteth. This I can agree with.
As for the Byleth/Lord ships, I feel kind of mixed on them. Every lord interacts with characters who have more depth than Byleth, but I still get the appeal. I'm going to deep dive into all of the lords relationships with Byleth later, but here's a quick summary.
Edelgard/Byleth is shoved down your throat so hard it's nearly impossible to ship Edelgard with someone else and even shortchanges her potential to have deep, non-romantic relationships because Edelgard puts Byleth on a pedestal that no one else can reach by her own dialogue.
Byleth's character arc works well alongside Dimitri's. While the relationship is pushed and fanservice-y scenes exist, the game leaves enough breathing room to see Byleth as a mentor/therapist/teacher figure, and Dimitri has no shortage of deep, meaningful relationships with others should you not want to do the whole self-insert thing. It's a good balance.
Claude and Byleth are the opposite of Edelgard and Byleth. They read almost more like friends than lovers. It's a breath of fresh air, honestly. Claude/Byleth seems like the healthiest possible romance for Byleth/lord because the lord in question here doesn't seem as dependent. That said, it lacks lacks romance and shipping fuel. I may complain about fanservice, but the Byleth/Claude dynamic does show why scenes of holding hands in the rain and teasing about badly drawn images might actually come in handy.
Edelgard's Ships
I'm not surprised, at all, that Edelgard has no popular ships outside of Byleth. Dialogue consistently shortchanges Edelgard's relationships with others by having her verbally, repeatedly put Byleth into a special "other" that no one else can reach for her.
Though, I guess I'm a bit surprised at the extreme lack of Edelgard/Hubert. I feel these two have a lot of shipping fuel and their supports left things unresolved. I've come across the sentiment in fandom many times that ship where things are tied off nicely with a bow leave less to explore and aren't as interesting, so I am bummed out no one seems interested in fleshing out Hubert/Edelgard more.
The outlook for Edelgard fanfic and me seems pretty limited. I don't like Edelgard/Byleth for various reasons beyond this scope of this post. I was kind of hoping there were some Edelgard/Hubert or Edelgard/Dorothea character study stuff that could help me get past how much Byleth gets in the way of Edelgard's character growth, but it seems fanfic writers only want to write about her and Byleth, which is a bummer.
On that note, I'm also surprised but also glad that Dimitri/Edelgard isn't a big thing. I thought it might be because tragedy of childhood friends turned enemies by events out of their control is popular. These two seem wildly incompatible though, so I'm glad people seem to agree.
Claude's Ships
Ok. Claude/Byleth. Expected. I'm feel positively towards the ship since they seem mostly good for each other even if it's not getting my heart all fluttering.
I'm surprised there's no Claude/Petra or Claude/Hilda. Those two are my personal favorites for him. I would've given Claude/Petra the edge given how they can uniquely relate to each other, but Hilda's scene in CF really gave Petra a run for her money. Even more so that Petra and Claude have obligations to two different nations and Hilda has no such complication.
But whattttt???? Claude/Dimitri? It's in the top 10?? More people ship Dimitri with Claude than Dedue?? I thought lord/lord might be popular, but I honestly thought Dimitri/Edelgard would take it, not Claude/Dimitri. They never really talk. So I'm a bit confused about this one. Though, intrigued by the idea.
Can I take a wild guess this partly stems from Claude having no real other viable M/M ships outside of M!Byleth and fics that plays up the chapter I'm about to play in AM (Dimitri saving Claude) or "what ifs" VW routes where Dimitri doesn't . . . you know.
I am really curious about this dynamic though. Because I like Claude - a lot. He's a character I want to get attached to. From experience, the fastest way for me to like a character is to give them a significant relationship I enjoy with a character I already love and the new character gets absorbed by proxy. So, fans, please, tell me more about this Dimitri/Claude. I am curious.
Dimitri's Ships
I am as unsurprised by Dimitri's being one of the biggest repeat offenders on here as I am by Edelgard being Byleth or bust. If Edelgard is written to fanservice the player by making the self-insert her one and only, Dimitri is fanservicing the player by being a shipping magnet. The writers knew what they were doing and who they were trying to appeal to with these two characters.
Dimitri/Byleth is a given. The game plays up the romance angle, but it's not at the expense of Dimitri's other relationships.
What I'm more interested in, though, is Felix/Dimitri. Between angsty CF stories, post-AM slow-burns, or fleshing out missing scenes from their shared childhood, there's just a lot to work with and a rich context to use their relationship - spun romantically - to explore each character. Felix and Dimitri's relationship is layered, complicated, heart breaking, and potentially healing. The fact they're two incredibly attractive guys doesn't hurt its popularity either, I'm sure. I'm not surprised it ranked that highly.
Claude/Dimitri surprises me. If two lords were going to get on this list together, I would've put bets on Edelgard/Dimitri. Since Claude and Dimitri's relationship is fairly unexplored, I'm really interested to see more about what exactly this is about. Don't get me wrong. I figured people would pair two main characters who are that good looking together, I just didn't think it would rank that high.
I am, slightly sad, that Dimitri/Dedue isn't a bit higher, but happy it seems to have some steam. I get it though. Dedue's not as flashy as some of the others on the shipping list and their relationship is so full of fluff by their A support it lacks the angst Felix/Dimitri and Dimitri/Byleth can draw out nor is as much of a play around with "what ifs" as Claude/Dimitri is.
Non-Lords/Main Characters Ships:
This list, more than anything else, shows AO3's penchant for writing M/M and F/F works for better or worse. Whether this phenomena stems from lack of representation, fetishizing by the fanbase, deeply ingrained gender roles making fictional M/F ships either less appealing to many fanfic writers, or M/F romances often getting assumed leading to less substantial writing compared to friendships - I don't know. Probably all of it.
There are a few surprises here for me. Felix/Sylvain is that popular? I figured they'd make the top 10, but #1 is surprising. Though, looking through the first page of the tag, it's true Felix/Sylvain have fics just for them, but it also seems like a common pairing in Dimitri/Byleth and Dimitri/Claude fics. It's the same story with Caspar/Linhardt, who I honestly didn't expect to see. They had a fair number of their own fics, but it seems many CF fics put them together rather than focus solely on them. Felix/Annette also balances being the main focus and an adjunct pairing. Marianne/Hilda seemed to have less fics where they took center stage and more they were one of many ships listed.
Ferdinand/Hubert having a lot of fics isn't surprising. I don't really care too much for it personally, but I can see the appeal of it.
I'm surprised Catherin/Shamir is nowhere in sight. Likewise, Rhea is absolutely nowhere. Kind of sad by the lack of adult characters in general. Especially Rhea. I think it's a pretty big sign of how the writing's treated her that such an important character is totally absent in this list.
Not surprised at all to see Felix also get so many ships. He, like Dimitri, seems designed on purpose to ship with many characters. I do really wish Dorothea and Seteth would get more attention though.
What do you guys think? Anything that surprised you? How do you feel about any of these ships and there popularity or lack thereof? Are there characters/pairings you wish got more attention? Any popular ships you despise (spill that tea)?
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