#i’m so beyond over gatekeeping in this fandom | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

flushed-for-the-trolls · 2 years

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Boyfriends Webtoons Discourse

The more I read this ‘controversial’ webtoons, the more I’m convinced that the people that are so offended by it have NEVER even read a single chapter in full.

I understand not liking it, that’s fine, the issues people have with the creator are personal and if you can’t forgive X thing that he did, then that’s with you and I won’t bother arguing, since it has the potential to be personal/hit close to home for some.

But, like, when it comes to the ACTUAL webtoons??? Like, have any of you read the basic introductory chapter?

“It’s not serious!” “It’s cringe!”

Literally the FIRST BF profile card says “Epic Gamer Skillz” “Tweetch Subs” and “D’ARKNESS LV.” Could it be any more obvious??? Of course it’s not serious, of course it has cringey dialogue, the majority of these chapters have memes in them. The point is that it’s NOT serious, and it NEVER pretended to be in the first place. The damn characters speak like personified Discord Servers. “WTF” “EZ”. In a close follow-up chapter one of the characters literally says “OWO Choco?” Like???

So of course it’s not serious, of course it’s over the top and cheesy, to be over the top and cheesy IS THE POINT. But it seems like no one has actually read the comic, they’ve simply seem a few reactions and out of context clips from the comic and decided they know how everything works... Disregarding the fact that they’ve never read it...

Next is people claiming that the comic “fetishizes gay people”.

First of all. The Author is gay. Second of all, literally who cares? If someone is dumb enough to gather all their opinions of gay people based on a webtoons comic that’s basically a longstanding meme, their opinions never mattered to begin with.

Lastly, I get an icky feeling in my stomach whenever I hear this talking point. I remember feeling it back when I was in the hell that was the MHA fandom.

It was during shipping wars when an eerily similar point was made concerning gay couples. “They’re fetishizing gay people!” “All this shipping is because of the Fujoshis!”

You know who was saying all this? STRAIGHT PEOPLE.

Yes, for whatever reason which is beyond my understanding, when the topic of gay couples is brought up, it’s always Heterosexual people who think they know what’s best for the LGBTQ+ community. They often talk over gay people, and what happens when gay people don’t agree with them? “I bet you’re just a Fujoshi!” They say, unaware that this stranger they’ve never even seen the face of, is, in fact, gay and male.

So even now, I have to wonder if the people that are declaring this as sexualizing gay people are even gay themselves, if they’re not, do they realize that THE CREATOR is gay himself? Not only that, but as a personal account, I can recall many open and proud LGBTQ+ people (primarily gay) that act like stereotypes. There’s NOTHING wrong with how these characters act, nor those very real people. It’s an insult to these people’s real expressions.

Tell me, would you go up to a gay person and tell them that their form of personal expressions are “wrong”? Who on earth would any of us be to talk down to others like that?

That is also to say that LGBTQ+ people are under NO obligation to act “normal”. We should not be expected to suppress our real forms of expression for the sake of “not letting everyone else down”. If we all had to act normal, if no other depictions of being different were allowed, life would be worthless and meaningless.

This partially off topic tangent is to Segway into the talking point (or implied talking point) that this webtoons is publicizing unflattering stereotypes and is therefore bad.

Firstly. If you think this story is some sort of blow to LGBTQ+ Pride, the problem is with you. There’s nothing wrong with how you express yourself so long as it hurts no one. If you think this makes everyone under the rainbow banner look bad, you should look inward and wonder why you need to gatekeep how others express themselves (and to be clear, yes, I know I am referencing fictional characters with no will or mind of their own, but I believe the general point still stand firm when transferred over to real life).

Two, as I covered, these aren’t mythical stereotypes, there are actual people who live like this, and they’re valid and entitled to living how they see fit.

But you know what? I hear you, in spite of the numerous arguments I’ve made, You still have your objections, but here’s where my secret Uno Reverse Card kicks in.

My final argument.

It’s Refrainbow’s webcomic.

It’s as simple as that. Any content creator is not beholden to their audience and their whims. You can not like the comic, that’s fine, but you’re NOT entitled to changes made at your say-so. People frame their points like they deserve changes made so it can personally appeal to them, but that’s just not the case. If you don’t like the webtoons comic, rewrite it. Make it into something you like, but posting about how all the BFs are going to hell and how you want to run them over with a truck isn’t helping anyone or anything, you’re just being incredibly childish and whiny.

Once again: This is a FREE Webcomic made by a small set of people (I think just two? According to the Webtoons chapter outros at least). This webtoons is not going to revolutionize gay relationships, nor is it reasonable to expect it to. It’s a personal passion project, and it has every right to stay that way and not branch out like so many seem to want it to.

A final few disclaimers.

1. If you’re a straight cis person, just don’t argue. I’m gay, and I’m not about to have a straight person try to talk down to me and tell me I’m wrong, or worse, claim I’m a Fujoshi/Yaoi Loving Fangirl, there’s a reason I stepped away from the MHA fandom ya know.

2. I’m not a dedicated fan of this fic (although I do admit to having a bias, as I enjoy it and find humor in it) or of the author. I personally don’t care about the past controversies, and as I’m not affected by any of them, It’s not my place, duty/obligaton to forgive them on behalf of the people they harmed, that’s not the goal of this conversation. I simply am tired of seeing all this hate, both from arrogant straight people, and this senseless infighting from a section of the LGBTQ+ Community. To me it all seems like trumped up claims that don’t align with the reality of the situation.

Finally: If you like this webtoons, you’re valid. If you don’t like this webtoons, you’re valid, if you harass fans or the creator, you’re invalid, and if you talk over minorities while not being a member of said minority, your opinions, in that situation, are invalid.

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goldensunset · 6 months

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I can't believe people are still being stupid in the notes of your gatekeeping post. Look, I don't even consider myself to be in the mobile games part of the fandom (in a similar vein to how re:coded and 358/2 days were cutscene-only ventures so I never really got into them beyond what I needed to know for future titles). I even have a moral stance against gacha--I wouldn't play the games even if they were still around because I'm so repulsed by the mechanics--but like, I find most of the ongoing complaints about khuxdr to be disingenuous and dumb. This is 2023!!! Why are KH fans acting like there aren't 84357320984209738 fan recaps for the to look over? Written summaries, textposts, video essays, a fandub, or for fuck's sake just ask a mutual who watched the cutscenes. This is bullshit. Buddy if they think this shit is confusing they should get into FNAF

amen. 1. it could be a thousand times worse 2. it’s not like the rest of the kh series itself is better 3. i’m not saying everyone and their mother has to be as deranged as i am about ‘em they just have to be even bare-minimum familiar for their own sakes 4. it is really really easy at this point.

#asks #dj-of-the-coven

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wtheckzukasubs · 2 years

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Sharing and gatekeeping in the fandom

This will be long and there’s a big chance it won’t reach those who I wish read it, but here it goes...

Though most should be aware, there have been an abusive use of subtitles in this fandom. Along with that, the fandom have been “outed” in platforms like Tiktok, where it gives over-exposition to our illegal subtitles and streamings.

Yes, making subtitles to a commercial show is illegal. Of course, streaming them is also illegal. However, we’re in a fandom that is hard to access (no subtitles in the releases, the need of specific VPNs or the high costs of using a proxy, shipping and paying for import tax—in my country the latter can be more expensive than the total I’ve paid for the product, when the product isn’t lost in the way). And we’re a fandom, we love our product, we want people to know it, and people won’t if they don’t understand it much less if they can’t have contact with them. That’s why we take these risks.

Why not just share with a friend, who we can trust not to leak us and get us sued/arrested? More than many, as someone who takes meds for anxiety and depression, I know it’s hard to become friends with people, say hello to me and I’ll take days to say hello back because I’ll be freaking about how much I should tell this stranger who wants to talk to me (and why would anyone? Did I do something wrong??). So, if it weren’t for these amazing people sharing there stuff with me, my knowledge of Takarazuka could have ended when I came back from Japan and could no longer have uninterested access to it. I wouldn’t pay my month’s salary on a video of a show I don’t even know I’ll like just to practice my Japanese, as it all started for me. That is why I know the importance of sharing beyond my real friends (there’s also that my non-zuka friends never became zuka friends lol).

However, and this becomes a cycle hard to break from, Takarazuka is a super small fandom. There may be people who will casually watch it, but those who are willing to put their time and/or money into supporting it as well as being involved in group activities only because they like the same thing, that is still a small number. We can have communities on Livejournal or servers on Discord with over 500 people, but how many are active? Even including all those who just forgot to leave the servers when they gave up on the fandom, 500 is still a small number for people all over the world supporting a company as large as Takarazuka.

My point is, we’re so so so small, anything we share is easily traced back. I have never said my name here, and you still know who I am, for example. It’s different from the anime comms who work in large teams, their subs are done in so many steps the translator would probably not recognize their own work. I’m one person. I know my word choices, I know where I tend to do things wrong.

This is not about getting credit or thanks (will never be about getting money). This is about being traceable to people who’d want to do me harm. I’m going first person, but I’m still lucky not to live in Japan (in this aspect only lol) and be the first to get the blow. Some of us, however, either live there or have ties there, which makes them sitting ducks for a lawsuit or at least a very traumatizing cease-and-desist order.

I’m keeping my subs available here. For now, I have weighed the risks for me, and I think it’s still worth it.

But if you are not sharing your stuff, things processed on your computer that could have your fingerprint on it (and probably do), you may not understand the we’re not keeping any gates but protecting our integrity. This doesn’t deny that gatekeeping exists in this fandom. It does in all fandoms. So do foreigners unaware they’re proliferating xenophobia against us foreigners enjoying Japanese media. It’s good to always ask ourselves why the hell we’re reinforcing this or that rule. Some had a reason at a point and lost importance along the way. Some were never meant to exist. Some are so selfish compared to the number of benefits nor following it would generate...

Notwithstanding that, don’t call it gatekeeping so lightly when it does endanger the individual, someone we can name and so could their lawyers.

I feel I had some more to say but I’ve forgotten. And it’s already too long.

Follow the rules of anyone sharing content with you. They’re probably the ones who personally went through the headache of making it happen, and each share to even a friend is increased liability. People sharing around are publicly exposing the very members of the fandom who make it possible to make it grow so we can have more people. The more we get, the more anonymous we become, the harder it is to point fingers. That’s how it’s becoming easier to access. But we’re still not there. We must continue to test limits to increase territory but doing it without risking others.

Lastly, thank you everyone who have alerted me, I’m not in the Tiktok generation and I never search for Takarazuka on Youtube, so I’d never know about it. And thank you all for keeping to the rules of this site.

(If anyone had the energy to read these ramblings and still want to leave their opinions, feel free.)

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7-wonders · 1 year

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The Devil You Know

Michael Langdon x Reader (Mad Love Act II, Chapter VIII)

Summary: It's Fall Break, and Michael's taking you on a trip! Of course, it wouldn't be an outing with Michael Langdon without supernatural happenings.

Word Count: 4.9k

Author's Note: Well, well, well, look who updated Mad Love! I promise that the next chapter will not be nearly as long of a wait; I'm already halfway through writing it. As always, likes, comments, and reblogs are sorely appreciated because it lets me know that this fandom's not dead.

Mad Love Masterlist

When Michael sits next to you while you’re reading a book for your thesis class, you don’t really pay attention beyond smiling at him. After all, you both tend to seek each other out just to enjoy being together, so why should this be any different than any of the other thousand times?

But then you can feel him looking at you. When you look up at him, you only see the swish of his hair as he rapidly looks down at your phone. Chalking this up to him just admiring you (because your beloved husband is very much a devoted simp, even though he doesn’t really understand what you mean when you call him that), you uneasily go back to reading. That is, until you can feel his eyes on you again.

Sighing, you close the book and turn to face him fully. “What is it?”

“What’s what?” Michael at least tries to act like he has no clue what you’re talking about, which is mildly amusing.

“Why are you acting so…” you wave your hands, attempting to convey how he’s been acting. “Weird?”

“I’m not!”

You give him “The Look,” which you like to think you’ve perfected by now. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

You wait in silence, giving him one last chance to come clean before slowly opening your book again. It’s only a matter of minutes before Michael breaks.

“You have Fall Break coming up, right?”

You nod and try not to smirk at how good you are at reading Michael. “Next week.”

“How do you feel about coming on a trip with me?”

“A trip? Where?” You’re expecting him to say somewhere romantic, like Paris or Venice. Maybe he’s finally going to properly woo you in a foreign locale like you’ve been teasing him about for so long.

What you don’t expect is what he says. “New Orleans.”

“New Orleans?” You furrow your eyebrows. An interesting city, sure, but not quite what you would have imagined for your first actual trip with Michael.

“Yes.”

“Like ’New Orleans’-New Orleans?”

Michael laughs. “Yes, the one and only.”

“Why?” You try not to grimace. “Is it Cooperative stuff?”

“No, it’s not Cooperative stuff. Officially, I’m going there because my Father has requested that I deal with some disturbances in the French Quarter.”

You ignore the fact that he’s acting as his dad’s loyal little follower, because the memory of what Cordelia said to you is still extremely fresh in your mind. You’re both on thin ice right now, and the only real way to avoid major consequences is to begrudgingly play along…for now, at least. Instead, you think about what business would bring Michael to that area, and a lightbulb goes off over your head (figuratively, because the last time that an idea came to you and Michael turned a lightbulb above you on, you almost smacked him). “Papa Legba?”

Michael nods.

“I thought Papa Legba and your dad had different domains.”

“Technically, Papa Legba…serves under Satan. He’s a gatekeeper between humanity and the underworld. I don’t have all the specifics yet, but it seems as though he’s not sticking to the responsibilities laid out for him.” You want to mutter something about temperamental rulers of Hell, but Michael’s continuing before you can. “Unofficially, I’m using it as a chance to go and look over Robichaux’s grimoires in the hopes of finding an answer for our Cordelia problem.”

You perk up at the mention of your best friend’s dwelling, and you can see how Michael stifles a smile at you having the anticipated response. Still, you try to look at least a little critical of this plan, and say, “So you want to drag me along on a work trip.”

“It wouldn’t be all work! We could explore–you love old architecture, and the French Quarter is full of it. Plus there’s lots of music and dancing, and we can go to a museum or two.” He’s really pulling out all of the stops here, checking all of the boxes on the buzzwords that make you say yes.

And you do say yes. “Fine, let’s go to New Orleans next week.”

Michael presses a kiss to your cheek and grins, hugging you tightly to him. “I love you so, so much.”

“You’re annoying me!” you playfully grumble and attempt to shove him off of you. “You already got me to say yes, you don’t have to suck up anymore.”

His annoyingly skillful fingers begin to trail down your sides until they come to a stop over your hips. “I can definitely be a little more convincing, if that will help.”

“I’m trying to work right now, and you’re making it extremely difficult.”

“That’s the point.”

You glower at him, though you can’t hold the angry expression for long. “You’re gonna make me change my answer. Now leave me be so that way I don’t have work to do while we’re on this trip.”

Michael takes a step away from you, a wicked grin on his face. “Alright, I’ll leave you for now. I have to go and arrange our transportation and lodgings, anyways.”

Thankfully, Michael elects to enjoy the comforts of flying for this trip, instead of any number of weird, magical transportation methods. You get to fly on a private jet, which is one of the coolest, most bougie things you’ve ever done. When you and Michael walk onto the tarmac to get on said private jet, you feel like a movie star.

The flight is the definition of comfort, and you’re almost sad when the plane begins to make its descent into New Orleans. Though, from what Michael’s told you (he’s kept where you’re staying a secret, wanting to surprise you), the hotel is going to be just as five-star as the plane. The Cooperative, or the Satanists, or maybe Satan himself–whoever is funding this trip, they don’t spare any expense when it comes to the comfort of the Antichrist.

Of course, there's business to be taken care of before the fun can actually begin.

When not filming her wildly popular daytime talk show in Los Angeles, Dinah Stevens holds court in a small “production studio” in New Orleans (notably outside of the traditional voodoo territory of the French Quarter). At least, that’s what it is officially. Unofficially, it’s where potential clients can come and seek the help of the “Voodoo Queen of New Orleans”. Though you never met her predecessor, the vibe that you’re getting is that she would be rolling in her grave at Dinah basically advertising her voodoo services.

The studio, though small, is clean and trendy. A receptionist sits behind a minimalist desk answering phone call after phone call, and the TV in the reception area (predictably) plays old episodes of Dinah’s show. When you and Michael enter, he waves his hand and shuts the TV off, causing the receptionist to look up.

“Good afternoon,” the receptionist greets, “what can I do for you today?”

“Is Dinah in?” Michael asks.

“She is, but I’m afraid that she’s busy with a couple of interviews. I can definitely pencil you in for later this week, though.”

“Oh, no need.” With a simple smile, Michael has the receptionist’s head dropping to the desk as he falls asleep.

You look over at Michael and laugh. “That’s so cool.”

He grins at you before holding open the door to what’s presumably Dinah’s offices. “After you.”

Where the reception area was sleek and minimalist, Dinah’s–dressing room, would be the best way to describe it–personal rooms are filled to the brim with personality. Awards line the far wall, with her three Daytime Emmys proudly taking center stage. There’s a wardrobe rack with flashy clothes on it, as well as plenty of different shoes. If you didn’t know better, you’d think you were in a completely different building.

The woman herself enters her dressing room from another door opposite the one that you and Michael are standing in front of. Her hair is natural, with a leopard-print headband keeping it out of her face. It allows you to very clearly see the way that her brown eyes widen in shock and fear when she looks at Michael. She staggers back a couple of steps, but otherwise stays put. There’s nowhere for her to go; not when the Antichrist has come knocking for a meeting.

“Dinah Stevens,” Michael greets formally, his fingers running along a curtain hanging from the door frame. Dinah’s jaw tightens at this, but she doesn’t rebuke him for touching what’s not his. She can’t. Not when her magic is nothing compared to that of Michael’s.

“Antichrist.” Her eyes settle on you, and she smirks. “Mrs. Antichrist. Glad to see that there’s no lasting effects from Satan’s little poison apple trick.”

“Thank you for your help with that, by the way,” you say. “I couldn’t properly thank you the last time I saw you.”

She smiles just slightly, but the majority of her attention remains focused on Michael. “Can’t say I wasn’t expecting this little visit, though I was hoping that I would be wrong.”

“You know why we’re here, then?” Michael asks.

“Word on the street is that Papa’s not keeping the scales balanced lately.”

“That’s what I’m here to figure out.” Michael moves to stand directly in front of Dinah in what you assume is some sort of a power play. “I need you to facilitate a meeting between myself and Papa Legba.”

Dinah whistles under her breath. “That’ll cost you a pretty penny, Langdon.”

“I’m aware. As is my father. Name your price.”

She pretends to think about it, but you can both see the dollar signs that are flashing in her eyes. “A hundred grand. Cash.”

Michael rolls his eyes, but nods and smirks. “Done.”

Less than thirty seconds later, Dinah’s phone dings from her dressing room table. She checks the notification, and based on her reaction, it’s likely her bank alerting her of a large deposit into her account. Satisfied, she sits down in the chair at her dressing room table and looks back at Michael through the mirror.

“Come back tonight, then,” she says. “Nine o’clock, sharp.”

Michael, ever the dramatic, grabs your hand and transmutes you both back to the reception area. You scowl at him as soon as his two figures morph back into one. “I hate you.”

“No, you don’t. Besides, you didn’t even come close to throwing up this time!” You’re not actually serious in your grumbling–you just wanted to clear up some of the darkness that’s lingered over Michael like a shroud since the moment you stepped into this studio. “C’mon, I want to take you to Robichaux’s. You’re going to love it.”

Before you leave Dinah’s studio, Michael lifts a hand and the receptionist springs back up to a sitting position as if nothing happened. In his mind, it is as if nothing happened. He smiles at both of you and cheerily calls out, “Have a nice day!”

“Thanks, you too!” you say over your shoulder as the door shuts. The bright afternoon sun makes you squint in order to properly see as you turn to look at Michael. “You’ve been there before?”

“Only once or twice, when I was at Hawthorne and the Council was testing my abilities.”

Grabbing your phone, you pull up Mallory’s contact and text her, “We’re coming for you bby!!!” Almost immediately, she responds with a bunch of heart emojis.

Though you can see the teasing smile on Michael’s face as you start to hurry him along, he thankfully remains quiet. At least he’s smiling now; an actual smile, and not his haughty “I’m-the-Antichrist-and-I’m-better-than-all-of-you” smile. This, in your opinion, is much better, and you’re happy to hold onto his arm this time and allow him to transmute you again.

Miss Robichaux’s is a beautiful, white, Antebellum-style mansion that rests in the old neighborhoods just outside of the city. The grounds are spacious and well-kept, and there’s a wrought-iron gate that surrounds the perimeter. A brass plate attached to the stone of the main gate reads, “Miss Robichaux’s Academy for Exceptional Young Ladies.” It looks so picturesque, and nothing at all like what you had expected when Mallory and Michael called it a boarding school. You had been thinking of something from Oliver Twist, not a cute house that you honestly wouldn’t mind living in.

The black front door opens before you even make it up the front steps. A couple of young girls, no older than 15 and both dressed in black, walk outside. When they see Michael, they immediately start giggling and whispering to each other. You don’t blame them.

“Seems like you have a little fan club already,” you mutter to him as you pass the girls. Michael smiles at them politely, and you think you hear them both squeal quietly before they hurry towards the front gates.

“What?” He’s blushing now. “What makes you say that?”

“Because I was a fifteen-year-old girl once, and I would have acted the exact same way.” You lift up your joined hands so that you can kiss the back of his, but you quickly forget that when you see your favorite witch running down the large staircase inside the house and towards you.

“Mallie!” You drop Michael’s hand so that you can run through the door to throw your arms around the petite woman, who already has her arms outstretched and waiting for you.

You collide into each other as you hug tightly, swaying back and forth. God, you’ve missed her so much. Eventually, Mallory pulls away just enough to look at you as she exclaims, “I can’t believe that you’re here!”

“I know!”

“You two just saw each other a month ago,” Michael notes from behind you, the amusement heavily coloring his tone.

“Yeah, but it’s different because you’re here in New Orleans!” Mallory says.

“I’m happy for both of you, but, uh…” You both look over, where Michael’s stuck on the outside of the threshold like a vampire. “I seem to not be allowed inside.”

Mallory smiles at him sheepishly. “Sorry, I didn’t realize that there were still wards up to guard the house.”

“What’s the house being guarded from?” you ask.

Michael and Mallory both look at each other before Mallory says, “Michael.”

“What? Why?”

Mallory’s the first one to speak, though you can tell she doesn’t really want to. “There was a…time, after the coven had burned Ms. Mead for her crimes and before the Church of Satan had kidnapped you to be married to Michael, where he had threatened retribution on the school, on the girls. We took the necessary precautions to make sure that he wouldn’t be able to do so.”

You look at Michael in shock. “Retribution? Like, you threatened to kill them?”

“I was mad with grief, okay?” Michael begins to explain himself. “They killed the woman that was the closest thing to a mom that I had. I didn’t know what to do next, and I was very easily swayed by the influence of the Church. The witches were my enemies.” He pauses. “Cordelia was my enemy.”

“That was then, under the old regime. This is now.” Mallory smiles and makes a motion through the air with her left hand. “Michael Langdon, find yourself forever welcome in our domain.”

Michael steps through the doorway with ease now, though you’re half-expecting him to burst into flames in some sort of magic demon trap. Mallory sighs, apparently having had the same apprehensions as you. For now, though, all seems well.

The large foyer is bathed in sunlight from the windows three stories up, and you take a moment to bask in the grandiosity of this mansion before doors open and the house is flooded with girls having finished their classes. It’s organized chaos, and you find yourself subconsciously bracing yourself as if you’re about to be faced with a bully and feel a lot like the fifteen-year-old girl you told Michael that you once were.

Most of the students cast at least a cursory look at the three of you; after all, their Supreme with two mysterious strangers is undoubtedly going to end up as big news for the students of this school. Still, none of them do anything beyond shooting a friendly smile to Mallory and scurrying off to their dorms or their next class.

When all of the students have made it to where they’re meant to be and your little group is once again alone, Michael and Mallory smile at each other. You feel a lot like the odd man out, and so you say, “What’s so funny?”

“I just had quite the feeling of deja vu,” Michael explains, Mallory nodding in agreement.

“Wait. You told me you were here a couple of times when you were a Hawthorne student. So why did you and Mallory never meet before me?”

“Us students were taken on ‘field trips’ when the warlocks visited. Cordelia and Myrtle didn’t trust warlocks–”

“For good reason,” Michael interrupts with a scoff.

“Yes, for good reason. But yeah, that’s why we never met.” Mallory hops up the first couple of steps, as light on her feet as a fawn in a spring meadow. “C’mon, I’ll show you to the library. That’s where we keep all of the grimoires.”

“And what will you do, then? While I’m perusing your fine collection?”

“I’m gonna give Y/n the grand tour.”

The ‘grand tour’ after Michael is dropped off in the small home library is a quick run-through of the house before you find yourselves hiding out in Mallory’s bedroom and gossiping. Her bedroom, like the rest of the house, is almost sterile levels of white. You’re glad to see the posters and art that decorate the large bedroom and make the room seem more lived-in.

“This where the magic happens?” you ask Mallory, flopping down on her large, four-poster bed. She tosses a couple of books down on her desk before following your lead and falling opposite you. When you look at each other upside down, you break out into giggles.

“God, I’m too busy for any of that.” She sighs and rubs her eyes in exhaustion, careful not to smear her makeup. “I regret every time I was as much of a terror as these girls are. They’re going to give me gray hairs, I swear.”

You sit up, lifting Mallory’s head into your lap so that you can give her an impromptu head massage. “You also became Supreme pretty prematurely, if I remember correctly.”

“My own fault. I’m reaping what I’ve sowed.”

“You’re being quite the Negative Nancy.”

“No, I'm a Melancholy Mallory.”

You choke back a laugh at her retort. “Are you doing all of this alone?”

“Am I doing what alone?”

“Running the school, teaching the next generation of witches.”

“Kind of.” Reluctantly, she pulls her head out of your lap. The topic, you can tell, makes her feel uncomfortable. “Cordelia and Myrtle were the ones with all of that wisdom, and now they’re gone. I don’t know anybody that can help me delegate these responsibilities.”

“There’s not an alumni association of former students that you could call on to see if they’d be interested in coming back?”

“There probably is. Word hasn’t really gotten out yet about Cordelia dying, and I doubt they’ll support me as their Supreme when they find out I’m the reason that Cordelia’s dead.”

“Don’t say that,” you scold harshly.

“Why not? It’s true.”

“No it’s not. The only person that Cordelia has to blame for her death is her. Not you, not me, not Michael. Her.”

Mallory’s big eyes well with tears, and she looks down at her hands in her lap. It’s obvious now that she hasn’t really had the chance to process Cordelia’s death and everything that happened just a couple months ago. You feel stupid for not realizing that it would be affecting her so deeply. It should have been clear, even when she was smiling and having fun with you and Kate at Homecoming, that she was deeply mourning the loss of someone who she had once seen as a beloved mentor.

“I–” Mallory’s voice breaks, and she takes a long moment before finding it in her to speak again. “How could I not be to blame? I was the reason that Cordelia was able to kidnap you. I was the one who regretted it enough to go to Michael and tell him what had happened, and I stood by as he killed her.”

“You’re wrong. Cordelia manipulated you, Mallory, and she used you to her advantage. Her choices led to her death.”

“I just feel so guilty,” she confesses.

“And you can feel guilty. I’m not telling you that your feelings towards this aren’t valid. But you need to know that you’re not the guilty party here, okay?”

Mallory finally looks up at you, tears streaming down her face. You can tell that she’s going to attempt to argue this point, so you grab her face in your hands.

“Mallory. You are not guilty. You didn’t kidnap me, and you didn’t come up with the plan to kidnap me. Michael would have found me, with or without your help. Without you, it would have just taken him a little bit longer. And you are not the one that killed Cordelia. If you were, for some reason, to have stood in Michael’s way, he would have killed you as well.”

She nods, though it’s a little difficult to do so considering you’re still holding onto her. You want her to believe you wholeheartedly, but you know that she can’t. Not yet. She needs time and healing, and one conversation isn’t going to absolve her of the guilt that she feels. But you can’t help but to hope that this will be the start of that healing.

“I know you don’t believe it yet, but can you say it for me?” you ask.

Mallory takes a couple of deep, gasping breaths. Her hands grip your wrists, whether for stability or grounding, and she finally says, “I am not guilty.”

“Damn right you’re not.” You fully hug her then, allowing her to collapse into your arms. Stroking a hand through her hair, you rock her back and forth with you on the bed as she cries. “And I’m gonna make you say it every day, so you better mark off time in your busy Supreme schedule for when I call.”

“God, you’re stubborn.” She laughs through her tears, but at least she’s laughing.

“You love it.”

“Yeah, I do.”

By the time Michael finally finishes his research in the library, it’s as if nothing happened. Mallory has led you to one of her favorite spots in the large backyard: a hammock under one of the old wisteria trees towering over the yard. The sun is beginning to slowly make its descent, casting golden waves of light over both of you as you doze in the hammock, your head laying next to Mallory’s feet and vice versa. A light breeze blows the hammock back and forth just slightly, though you suspect that Mallory might have something to do with this.

Your eyes flutter open when you feel a pair of lips on your forehead, and you look up and smile upon meeting Michael’s gaze. “Hey. How’d it go?”

“Alright, I guess. There’s some texts about banishing spirits, but they involve sending the spirits to my father’s domain, so not exactly doable.”

You frown. “I’m sorry. We still have time, though! I’ll help you after your break.”

“Mm, I figured I’d call it a night, actually. We only have about three hours until we have to meet Dinah, and I thought you might like to go explore some of New Orleans with me.”

“Are you asking me out on a date, Michael?”

“That depends, are you going to accept?”

“I don’t know, Mallory and I are pretty busy right now.”

Across from you, Mallory groans. “Disgusting, both of you. How dare you flirt at my school, in front of me.”

“I can flirt with you too, Mal. All you have to do is ask.”

“No, you can not flirt with Mal,” Michael says with jealousy lacing his tone.

You and Mallory both laugh. “I’m teasing, Michael. But yes, I would love to explore New Orleans with you.”

“You’re meeting Dinah at nine?” Mallory asks. When Michael nods, she sits up and stretches. “I have a couple of things to give you for protection, just in case she tries to double cross you. Give me five minutes to grab them before you jet off on your date.”

When Mallory goes back inside through the open French doors, Michael takes her place on the hammock. You begrudgingly sit up as well, leaning your head on his shoulder as you fully wake up from your post-nap state.

“So, a date? Where are we going?” you ask.

“If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise,” Michael says.

“You know that I don’t really like surprises.”

“Well I love surprises, and they do say that relationships are all about compromises.”

When you pout, Michael kisses your lips to try and remove the pout from your face. It works, but for argument’s sake, you keep it on in an exaggerated fashion. “Can I at least get a hint?”

“Hmm.” Michael pretends to think. “There’ll be music?”

You furrow your eyebrows, already thinking about what it could be. A bar? No, that’s not really Michael’s scene. Maybe some sort of a live performance. But still, knowing Michael, there will be more than just the music. Now you’re excited, and he can tell that you are.

“Food, too,” he adds.

“Good, I’m starving.” And you are starving. You haven’t eaten since the plane this morning, and the nonstop action of today means that hunger is just starting to catch up to you.

Mallory nearly skips to you, her arms full of stuff. You’re not quite sure what you could possibly need to prepare for this meeting (after all, you’ve never really interacted with voodoo practitioners), and as you look at the items she hands to Michael, you still can’t make any sense of their significance. Luckily, Mallory explains them one by one.

As she gives Michael a small box, she says, “Cuban cigars for the offering. They’re Papa’s favorite.”

A bottle with crushed up herbs, she explains, “This mandrake will help to amplify your magic. Though Dinah will be doing the summoning, with this, Papa Legba should be bound by the laws of your magic and not hers.”

Finally, she pulls out a charm, which she gives to you. There’s a symbol etched onto the small circle at the bottom of the crystal chain, and you run your thumb over it. “This charm will help protect you, Y/n, since you don’t have any magical powers. Papa Legba shouldn’t try anything; he’s an honorable being who typically doesn’t take what has not been explicitly given to him. Still, it never hurts to have a little extra protection.”

Michael leans over your shoulder to look at the charm, but Mallory places a hand on his arm before he gets any closer.

“The charm protects against all beings that are not of this plane, as well as those descended from those beings. I’d prefer that you don’t end up zapped to Hell because you got too curious.”

Michael scooches back warily, taking Mallory’s warning to heart. After you’ve safely pocketed it, he says, “Thank you, Mallory. Truly. It’s nice to know that somebody cares about Y/n’s safety like I do.”

Mallory shrugs, a blush appearing on her peaches-and-cream complexion. “Friends don’t let friends accidentally make deals with preternatural beings.”

“Just take the compliment,” you stage-whisper, making her laugh.

“You’re welcome, Michael.”

Before anything else can be said, a younger girl appears at the back door. “Miss Mallory? Miss Zoe’s looking for you, somethin’ ‘bout a book you have.”

“Thank you, Abby, I’ll be in shortly.” When the girl runs back through the house, Mallory sighs and runs a hand through her hair. “Duty calls, I guess. Try not to have too much fun tonight.”

“I hope it will be uneventful, but we’ll see,” Michael says. “We’ll see you tomorrow.”

You and Mallory hug goodbye before she’s off, back to pick up the mantle of Supreme and deal with everything that entails. You and Michael are left sitting in the backyard alone, though it’s only a moment before Michael slips Mallory’s gifts into the pocket of his coat.

“I figured we’d go to the hotel first and freshen up before going out. That sound okay?”

Considering you can feel the staleness of flying still lingering on you, that sounds like heaven to you. “Definitely. Wouldn’t want to scare my date off with how I look after a day of traveling.”

“Luckily for you, I have it on good authority that your date thinks you’re the most stunning person he’s ever seen, no matter your current appearance.”

You roll your eyes, but your cheeks are fucking burning right now. You bury your face in Michael’s shoulder under the guise of preparing for transmutation and say, “Just take us to the hotel.”

Within the blink of an eye you’re gone from Miss Robichaux’s backyard, with only the last notes of Michael’s delighted laugh remaining as evidence of your presence here.

///

Tag List: @thatonehumanbeing05 @michaellangdon @xavierplympton @hecohansen31 @dark-mei-rose @blakescoven @wroteclassicaly @we-did-it-joe @codycrazy @love-on-the-murder-scene @michaellangdonswhore @nsainmoonchild @langdonsjoyy @aftertheglitterfades @ferndolan @the-mysticalm-blog @hellfire-club-things @moonlike33 @narwhal-swimmingintheocean @a111318 @angiestopit @littleangel4996 @xo-angel-ox

#michael langdon #michael langdon imagine #michael langdon imagines #michael langdon x you #mad love musings #american horror story imagine #american horror story #american horror story #american horror story imagines #ahs imagines #ahs imagine #ahs fanfiction

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rametarin · 1 year

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Imagine a person..

The sort of person that walks into a D&D campaign, or any place centered for nerds on high fantasy, and the conversation they want to have is that, castles and monarchy are bad, and therefore, bad culture and bad influence on society.

So they demand putting in big disgusting notes at the start talking about, “CERTAIN UNDESIRABLE GROUPS sure have been whooping up monarchy and racism lately, huh! The feudal times were actually horrible and unequal and a terror, and we should stop idolizing them beyond nostalgia for [beloved book series that’s on thin ice but politically inexpedient to trash on without losing the audience]”

Then they start to suggest, ohhh, I dunno, fantasy settings with more.. I dunno.. just spitballin’.. anarcho-syndicalist or socialist themes maybe? Or mythological tribespeople with weird cultures on equality, something about ‘critical lenses’ maybe, and advice on why you should want to involve many cultures in your games and stories, but not allow anyone to play as them unless they’re the appropriate racial background in real life.

Yeah it’s irritating. But it’s also fucking ridiculous and presumptuous. You know whom you sound like when you do this?

How so? Okay,

what other presumptive ass would walk in on a bunch of nerds and tell them they’re FANTASY GOVERNMENT IN THEIR YE OLDE TIMEY MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN FANTASY GAME AND FRANCHISE WRONG? And then have the audacity to demand maybe OHHHH I DUNNO... CONSTITUTIONALIST FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAVING REPUBLIC, WITH REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY?

Having the gall to tell them they, “shouldn’t idolize dead kings and should get a REAL government system in their imaginationland.” Because, “kings and royalty are for wusses and communists.”

You might be going, “THAT’S TOTALLY DIFFERENT FROM WHEN I DO IT!” and. no it isn’t.

D&D and fantasy fiction use mythological past to stimulate the mind and actually learn about history, just to mythologize it. Of course feudalism was actually terrible. Romance of some things, particularly pirates for example, is terrible. But the people marching up this hill to make a fuss and try to pull a silk screen over peoples hearts and minds to manipulate them know publishing academic hitpieces, calling women out on their romanticizing pirates in novels and fiction, would make them terribly unpopular and rend their target audience dumb to their voice.

When fantasy utilizes the romantic image of the monarchy, they are NOT sponsoring monarchism, oh my fucking god. This disgusting fiction exists for nothing else than to justify treating aspects of media and culture the way tribes and nations treat features of geography for area denial from the enemy, to keep them thirsty, to starve them, to give them nowhere to live. I’m so tired of it not being understood that these people are behaving and thinking like this specifically for this tactic and outcome. Gatekeeping and ownership of the entire fandom of production and consumption of stories and fiction and art.

That’s authoritarian and tyrannical, and trying to use postmodernist nonsense the way religious moralists bandy about their religious text as if it were a book of facts for their undesired opinions.

Also popular is talking about how, “you know how European culture is specifically racist and all their fantasy creatures are just expressions of xenophobia, right? Orcs are ‘swarthy’ dangerous barbarian foreigners. black people! Those racist Europeans!”

Boiling down and tainting all European history to just, “white people are conceited monsters who unlike everybody else, hated everybody that was not their chosen people.” The least historical and most unflattering interpretation of culture and mythology you can have, done purely to invalidate and delegitimize a thing.

They invite other groups of people to accept this interpretation for two reasons. Firstly, it gives them cultural power to interpret things as true or false. That is a kind of power. Second, it gives different political entiites a popular (if incorrect) imagery to treat as true when dealing with European or people that are descended from them. And in theory since these people claim to be SoooOooOooOO protective of “persons of color,” this relationship can never go bad, can it?

Wrong. That’s not how people that think like this work. In conventional Marxism, the Marxists start spreading propaganda and working backwards with people to demand upon them even imaginary common ground they can agree on. Such as, “Ryan is an asshole because-”. Then they keep doing that, until the group reach consensus Ryan is an asshole, at least they can agree on THAT, and decides to kill Ryan. They make him dig his own hole, then put a bullet in his head and bury him.

And then the Marxist does the same thing to the next runner up, Michael, progressively assassinating the character of the competition without directly competing with them, getting the other participants to do his dirty work for him.

It start with, “all white people are racist.” When white people are no longer the scapegoats, then the same people that clawed their way up claiming to, “only care about racial and sexual justice!” and that white men embody the worst elements of both, suddenly switch to the next nearest, “oppressive majority.”

And they train youth to do this inter-community. So on the macro scale they’ll at least pay lip service to caring about Native American culture and religion and identity. On the micro scale, if they were being honest, they’d call many Native American tribes racist, most Native American cultures sexist, and tell them they don’t care what their history or traditions or culture say- they’re doing them wrong unless they do whatever the postmodernist socialist thinks is correct.

They didn’t USED to be so bold and broad with their terms for racism. They at least used to maintain a doublethink by the positive liberals that would say, “all racism is wrong,” while carefully using non-discussion and not allowing arguments or probing these thought destroying statements to prevent them asking if they’re saying non-whites are incapable of “being racist.”

The truth was they always believed racism was tied to class struggle theory and that meant white people were oppressors, thus racism was “the phenomenon of oppression living under a white majority with capitalism.” But the more general, palatable interpretation was, “racial discrimination bad. :)” With a million unseen and inaccessible asterisks that you WEREN’T SUPPOSED to even see to further ask them to clarify about.

But then they realized with the internet, people could trace the social lines back to sociology classes and professors and see the organization and institutions preaching this shit, even find the textbooks they’re printed in. So, they started being more upfront about it.

Before, they would’ve just avoided talking about it and let the other person give them the benefit of the doubt. SURELY, they didn’t mean, “all white people are racist/black and Asian people are incapable of racism,” right? When, yes, they did. Hiding in the ambiguities and things you’d never imagine they’d be implying in practice.

However, that’s just one step. Vilifying white people until white people are denied access or legitimacy to society because of their ethnic background isn’t the final step. Once whites are denied franchise just on the basis that being white is oppressive to others, then they’ll start trash talking the next minority as being the in-power majority; probably Asians, seeing as black people are the biggest sacred cows when it comes to racial discrimination, not just in the US, but globally. Then the generational story will be, “our beliefs weren’t complete. Also [other group] are bastards and their culture and heritage are imaginary trash, too.”

And so on. Presenting this as, “white people bad, we should gang up on them and do justice” is merely a means to an end for them. Sugar on medicine that sits in wait. Even if the next step is introduced 20 years from now.

So in short, these people are not the people you want to give the power to interpret fiction and fantasy, or gatekeep what is appropriate or not. They are not forthcoming, most of the time, and confuse THEIR good with true good on purpose. And believe so long as the book they’re drawing their absolutes from isn’t a religious text, but a sociology one, that it’s somehow more valid or empirical.

And they have no more weight to their bullshit than Stan Smith does, demanding our fantasy stories and romantic genres revolve around his idea of a “correct, moral and upstanding government and social values.” for the exact same reasons Stan would want to impose those on his son’s games.

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tonkysexist · 3 years

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Kamala isn't a member of the Young Avengers. Her team is the Champions.

Yeah I know. The MCU isn’t exactly known for following the comics perfectly. I’m just assuming that her introduction at the same time as the other Young Avengers characters means that the MCU is adding her to the lineup. Not to mention there has been past crossover between the Champions lineup and the Young Avengers (Patriot & Prodigy have appeared on both teams).

Also, I find your desire to nitpick people who are just getting excited for something both irritating and gatekeep-y in nature. If you are truly bothered enough by something that negligible to send in an ask- maybe think twice about what you’re actually achieving by doing so. It comes off as incredibly rude.

#i’m so beyond over gatekeeping in this fandom #asks #champions #ms marvel #kamala khan #young avengers

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pop-punklouis · 2 years

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Please let's talk about how smart louis is! It honestly amazes me just how intelligent he is and how people have always scraped that to the side because he's always been labeled the "goofball" and the "immature one"

i don’t have time to really dive into it but! here’s some of my running thoughts:

Louis is such a smart person and businessman. he is incredibly intelligent, and he knows the industry better than anyone because of the grueling fight he’s been entangled in for years with it. and he always sees the bigger picture. i fully trust that he has a plan that he’s been moving towards step by step for years, and with this tour possibly (hopefully) being his last obligation to sony, we’ll see so much unfold with BMG and his independent status going into LT2. he has the stamina and presence to go completely independent and negotiate deals with major labels and corporations without being chained under the umbrella of them. and i’m incredibly excited to see him thrive independently and for this all to occur in real time. like previously mentioned, the way he has built his brand and career over the years makes me certain that he’s going to have such longevity and such an impact in the industry. his staying power and steady climb on top of his immense relatability and personability with fans is vital to his dynamic as an artist. not to mention, the decision made with his first record to not veer too incredibly far from the sound fans were accustomed to (while also being able to blend his musical influences into that sound) so he could seamlessly transition to his sophomore record and to the sound that i, ultimately, believe he wants and will have on LT2 was so, so smart. also, the way he wants to create his own management company where he is the CEO and is very hands-on with the artists— knowing exactly how to genuinely guide them, let them express themselves, be who they are, and trusting their talent beyond everything else. and the free music festival he put on independently??? all the decisions he makes are elaborately planned, and when they finally come to fruition within the fandom it always makes so much sense that’s why i’m such a firm believer in trusting louis and trusting how he navigates his career the best he can because no one knows him and his goals and his career better than himself.

also x2! his acute awareness of everyone and everything around him, knowing how to channel into his environment and adapt to be what is needed in certain circumstances is brilliant. he can tap into people’s emotions and instantly know how to calm them. plus he knows sign language. is incredibly conscious of class and gatekeeping. well-versed in many different topics. has carefully curated a whole lyric video that touched on different parts of his identity and social politics. has the most writing credits in one direction. reads psychology books for fun. nonchalantly just brings out nikola tesla’s key to the universe???

yeah, louis IS a goofball and can clown around, making people laugh and being a completely menace but that part of him can also coexist with louis being insightful, resourceful, clever, hard-working, genuine, big-hearted, and really fucking intelligent. and no one can ever take that away from him.

#grey #louis brain

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tobi-smp · 2 years

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1/4 clarification of the inniter neg situation; ppl arent upset about tommy IN CANON, theyre upset that when you try to find a fic centric about a smaller character (connor, purpled, jack, etc) its not tagged properly so all you get is fics of tommy. and you can't exclude his character tag, because then you'll miss a lot of really good fics that also include him. there's also the problem that characters will be tagged even if they only appear briefly.

2/4 so, when looking for connor-centric fics for example, you'll get a bunch of SBI-centric fics where he only shows up as a background syndicate member. this is especially a problem in the slimecicle cinematic universe (SCU) fandom, particularly the tumblr tags.

3/4 keep in mind i havent actually watched the video yet lol and havent been in the tags, so from my understanding, the tags were mainly about SCU!tommy and it was near impossible to filter out, and there wasn't much content for the other characters in that video.

4/4 also, this isnt like an attack on people BECAUSE they like tommy or anything! im actually an inniter myself! its just that statistically, with the amount of fans cc!tommy has, and therefore the amount of ppl who watch his POV, of course c!tommy is going to be this character this problem happens to. [End transcription]

Context: [Link]

firstly, thank you for clarifying further, I appreciate it!

but secondly, this only further confirms my initial thought. like, there’s nothing wrong with expressing annoyance about this trend in a general sense, but saying that it’s a problem with tommy specifically is absurd. this is just a problem for all fandoms everywhere, this is a problem that I run into all the time when I’m digging through the tommy tags or the sbi tags.

fans of smaller streamers are going to have it worse because small streamers are more likely to show up as background characters, but the idea that the Culprit is tommy in particular is ridiculous. the “sbi” isn’t just tommy, tommy is just One of the more popular streamers.

the inclusion of the scu argument only makes it More ridiculous. zommy was the main villain of the episode and had more screen time than most of the other characters (showing up multiple times and being directly tied to the plot of the event). people getting angry that inniters were entertained by the video and wanted to make content about it was not only Silly (he is, again, a major part of the video in terms of both screen time and plot), but it was the exact kind of exclusionary hostility that drives away potential new fans that I got into here [Link] (which is kind of a coincidence that I was just talking about it kjflads)

to be frank, there is going to be a swell of content in the immediate aftermath of a video being released, but after the initial excitement dies down so does the content. there was an uptick of zommy art for about two to three weeks after the video dropped and now it’s over. some people who were only introduced to the scu through tommy’s character will go back and sift through everything that came before, they’ll add to the conversation, they’ll breathe life into the fandom Beyond tommy’s brief involvement.

but a whole hell of a lot more would have done that if the reaction from the scu fandom hadn’t been outright hostility and gatekeeping. the only thing the gatekeeping accomplished was insuring that the inniters that people were angry weren’t engaging with the rest of the scu never would. you can say it isn’t targeted hate but that was just plainly not true for the scu situation.

tommy is a popular streamer but he’s also a controversial one because people find his personality annoying and resent his role in the dream smp. tommy Is Not the most popular streamer (that honor goes to dream who has several thousand more fics on ao3 than tommy does), but even if he was the problem being pointed out is not unique to tommy nor would it go away if inniters policed themselves.

I don’t believe that this issue is being centered around tommy and tommy fans for no reason, because I’ve been here long enough to see the pattern of unfair treatment from the fandom And because I read enough fic to know that this affects every character in every fandom, including the popular ones.

my credentials for that statement:

this fandom needs to learn how to talk about fandom-wide issues or about their streamer of choice without using tommy as a sacrificial lamb to convince people that it’s a problem that needs to be solved.

#anyways jkflasdjklfds #would you believe it's 2 am

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reflections-in-a-critical-eye · 2 years

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Idk are people blind or what? Twitter was so hot with V posting Leslie Cheung like to support LGBT people, but guys c’mon. The point is not him posting it, but him editing it two times to obviously not be interpreted in some way (I don’t say he’s homophobic, but I definitely say he JUST shared what he liked, it WAS NOT someone’s orientation, but an artistry) and in the end he just deleted it lmao. Because posting it I guess was controversial. Because he doesn’t want to “hint” at anything and because just like 75% of media persons he’s scared of whatever the hell could his fans interpret and to be an open supporter is just not the case here. Gosh, sorry, BMT, I’m just a little bit done with these pink lenses.

Anon, I am so done, you have no idea. I've been done for the past few days and it just feels like it doesn't stop. The day Tae posted that on his IG and I saw the reach from some people, I came here to provide a bit of extra information because we should have some context. I thought it wouldn't go further than that, but boy, was I wrong. So wrong. So now I'm just going to have a rant because I'm not ignoring this and it's going to be under read more cause I will have no filter whatsoever. I'm in no mood for propriety at this point and building up arguments.

So, what the actual fuck? Has the world gone mad? Of course Twitter was hot because they attach themselves to every little thing without using their brain. Tae shared a link to a scene from a movie. A movie that he likes and he did the dancing way back in Spring. But only now it has to become a thing cause probably army couldn't figure it out before where it came from. That was all. What fucking support man? What are we talking about here? All I see is stans projecting their needs onto a guy and turning him into some ally. Duude, go and find actual people who are either from the LGBTQ+ community or actual allies, instead of obsessing over this. I don't give a single fuck about threads made by people who think that just because a guy watches Call Me By Your Name or another one watches La Vie d'Adele, then they're some knights in shining armour, the face of support. The standards are so god damn low. Get out of the bubble (not you anon, I hope you understood already I'm not addressing this to you, but I'm talking in general).

There's this twitter account that I follow that focuses on BTS and cinema who apparently thought that information about Leslie Cheung's personal life is absolutely necessary to be brought to army's attention, instead of just focusing on saying what the film was, who directed it and maybe recommend other films. Are we forgetting we're dealing here with people from this kind of fandom? Full of children and immature people? And taekookers are the scum of the Earth, I don't even know what else to call them. Tagging his partner on IG, spreading a suicide note on twitter and crying about how it's such a tragic love story and so similar to Taekook? I feel like the word disgusted is not enough. No empathy and decency is left in this corner of the fandom and I'm sick of it. No one should bring that man's life in this fucking fandom. Let him rest in peace and his partner should not have to see that kind of bullshit. And this happens time and time again. Using other people's lives like it's nothing. Of course the information is out there, a click away on google. But to bring it to twitter and to create a fucking discourse around it, because some fetishizers are sick in the head is beyond anything I could imagine. That man's life should not in any way be associated with Army/Tae stans/Taekookers. And no one should fucking tag tumblr posts as well using his name in the context of this issue. His fans should not have to see such bullshit. I wish I could gatekeep it, as childish as it sounds.

And I'm not sorry at all for turning this into a personal rant. I discovered Leslie back in high school, by watching his movies and recently got back into that. He was an incredible artist and he left an important legacy. Everyone should respect that.

#asks #fucking armys and taekookers #they really know how to ruin everything #taekook

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ficforthought · 3 years

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On being SO DONE with M*sha, a rant a decade in the making!

After giving this some thought I'm going to go ahead and give my opinion on Misha and yesterday’s situation in public for the first time ever. I was going to just post on Twitter but since this has been 12 years in the making I have exceeded the number of tweets I can put in one thread! There’s A LOT in here, so my summary is also long. I'm aware that I will lose followers over this, I'm not looking to offend anyone but it will inevitably happen. I wish anyone leaving all the best as fellow human beings.

TL;DR - having kept quiet for so long I’ve finally reached my limit and it’s all come bubbling out. I’ve never been a fan of Misha, I’ve been ambivalent for the most part, but have never criticised him in any hateful way, that's not who I am, but after all these years of putting up with his bullshit, attention seeking and troublemaking I am DONE. Deleting his tweet containing the word Wincest and replacing it with an APOLOGY just to pander to his Minions and save face is the straw that broke the camel's back. He has consistently pushed his ship on not only fans but on other actors (despite Jensen's discomfort, and him having repeatedly made his feelings known on it), he has stood by while his Minions/Hellers have harassed, victimised, doxxed and sent death threats to people based on their FICTIONAL ships. He has pandered to their gatekeeping, constantly demanded attention in obvious and not so obvious ways, and to the best of my knowledge never criticised their actions even though he's aware of it in a very real way. Some of his Minions have now taken their shit into The Boys fandom and created negativity for Jensen before the guy has even got a foot through the set door, and how is that supporting one half of your ship?

Misha has claimed to be a victim of targeted harassment from Wincest/brother fans (not only shippers) yet his fans have said and done the most despicable things on his watch, all in the name of what he must think is entertainment, or even his idea of a ‘joke’.

Any respect I had for the man based on his humanitarian work has gone because I can only take so much hypocrisy. He and his pandering because of a desperate attempt to be woke and wholly inclusive (which is actually impossible, no matter how good intentions are) are beyond pathetic. Whilst I have never seen why people think he’s so great I have friends IRL and online who genuinely adore the man, yet they have been shocked and upset by his contempt for half of the fandom that made him somewhat famous. It's disgusting and I'm not scrolling by any more. Misha, I hope to never see you on anything J2 related in future because none of us need that kind of negativity, *especially* not J2. Be gone, foul fiend!

OK, so to the too long part. Please be aware that these are my opinions as a fan of the show, of Sam and Dean, and J2, not only as a shipper. I can separate canon and fanon, and can view canon from a gen or shippy PoV. Whether you agree or disagree with my opinion let me be clear that I do not condone constant bashing and hate of a person or character so this isn’t the start of a regular thing for me. It's possible to have an opinion and not show the same vitriol that has been following this man around for years, and that’s what I’m doing. I've not posted this to prompt more negativity, it's simply to get it off my chest and make it clear how I feel. I stand by my philosophy of ship who you want to ship, enjoy it, but don't force it on other people and don't be a dick about it…hmm, that kinda sounds like familiar behaviour, though, does it not?!

I have ABSOLUTELY NO ISSUE with other people liking Misha, Cas or Destiel when it’s for the love of the characters and the ship. What I *do* have an issue with is people who are the true definition of a Heller. I don’t see that as a generic term, don't be ignorant and think I do because I know the difference between actual ship fans and the crazies, both ships have ‘em and I want no part of either of their venom. If you are reading this and class yourself as a Heller then you are part of the problem so run along and as you are all so fond of saying, 'get help' and take your bestie king with you.

I’m stating my opinion in what I feel is the most mature way I can, because unlike many people on SM, I am an adult and can act accordingly, with forethought and without resorting to temper tantrums and bullying of other people to get my point across. I am able to tell the difference between reality and fiction, I don't tar everyone with the same shipper brush and I don't expect everyone to agree with my opinion, but as we know opinions are like arseholes, we all have them and sometimes they stink. Unlike some, for the most part in life (online and offline) I *do* stand by what I say and don’t backtrack or delete things to appease the masses. I have spent a lot of time writing this out to be as clear as possible without being intentionally hateful. Bear with me jumping between actor and character where relevant, at this point they're conjoined. I will say this before I go any further, it doesn’t end well for Misha, I don’t mince my words and if you don’t like seeing facts and opinions laid out, this isn't the post for you.

I’ll say right off the bat what most of you have surmised - I’ve never held Misha (or Cas) in high esteem but I have never *hated* on him. I have shared mild criticism of his actions and opinions on Cas over the years but never, I feel, in any way that has made me feel I have something to apologise for. I have said several times I've been unhappy about Misha crashing con panels, taking attention away from J2 when at those cons *most* people paid their hard earned money to see the STARS of the show they love, first and foremost, and anyone else is a very nice bonus. The odd appearance here and there crashing a panel is fine (and Misha isn’t the first or last person to do it), maybe take up a few minutes then leave, but when someone commandeers an entire panel, that's just not on. It's not only selfish, rude and attention seeking but also disrespectful to other actors, fans and to the organisers who work hard to make sure everything ties in to give us the best con experience we can have. Everyone gets their turn on stage, there's no need to try and hog any more of the limelight, Veruca Salt style. Oh, and if you’re reading this and not getting that reference, (a) you shouldn’t be on my blog because you’re far too young, (b) look it up, and if you still don’t get what I’m saying… well then please refer to point (a). Thank you, kindly!

There was a time in Kripke's era where Cas was - I feel - intentionally used as a pawn by the writers to divert *canon* from the ‘questionable’ relationship between Sam and Dean, i.e. Wincest focus. Prior to that people (other fans) lightened up and just accepted the fact that Wincest had been there since day one in terms of the writing of the show and the fandom. All the cast and crew knew - J2, Kripke and JDM in particular - and made light of it, never judging, never shaming and often encouraging it because they understand it’s a fun part of fandom. Wincest was present enough to be part of the not so subtle subtext, as I said people just accepted it. Kink tomato was alive and well, so was ‘don’t like, don’t read’ and we all just scrolled over things we didn’t like without turning everything into a personal vendetta and excuse for bullying others who didn’t share our views. When the angels came into the plot I think most of us Wincest fans gave the Dean/Cas innuendos the small laugh they deserved and then turned back to the focus of the show which was the brothers, as it had always been intended. Misha, however, milked those moments as much as possible which was amusing at the start but got old *very* quickly, not just for fans (shippers and non shippers alike), but for other actors, in particular Jensen who is on record MULTIPLE times showing his dislike for Destiel. He told people outright that's not how he was playing the relationship between the two characters and CATEGORICALLY said "Destiel doesn't exist" but did it end there? No, it did not because neither fans or Misha let it go, in fact Misha only pushed more, goaded fans into flogging the same dead horse as much as possible. He’s never stopped, not even when there was so much discord in the fandom, a huge wedge was driven into it because of ships, which IMO he heavily contributed to.

Fast forward to over a decade later (a decade, seriously man, let it fucking go!) he didn’t even stop when Destiel did partially go canon. I have never doubted that Cas loved Dean (Sam, too) because in SPN lore angels are made to love, even rebellious ones. I, along with many others, liked that about Cas because who doesn't love a rebel, especially one rebelling for very good reasons, and because of those two wonderful men? Sam and Dean allowed him to see beyond what he'd been brainwashed to believe his entire existence. The fact is that although the nature of that love changed for Cas, it never did for Dean and was CANONICALLY UNREQUITED because Dean was incapable of loving anyone else as much as he loved Sam. All that mattered to Dean, even when he saw other characters as "family" was still Sam…ALWAYS Sam, every step of the way. Again for those who have too much Misha shaped wax in their ears, that’s canon. Whether people choose to see that love platonically or romantically is up to them, soulmates don't always have to be romantic, either way, brotherly love won out above all else on the show. No amount of Misha screaming ‘hey look, Destiel!’ changed that, but it sure didn’t stop him trying, did it?

So now that the obvious has been stated, here's something else we all know - never once in all of the years on the show did Misha drop rallying of the troops to his precious, ego stroking ship. Never once (that I am aware of) has he called out his Minions and Hellers on their continued harassment of everyone involved in the show and other fans despite the fact that they have bullied, victimised and wished bodily harm, rape and death on people who don't see their ship and because didn't get the ending to the story that they wanted. Not once has Misha shown any remorse for the trauma his "fans" have caused, and I’m taking REAL trauma, here, not the kind Twitter stans see as ‘triggering’ - people have been driven to close SM accounts, attempted, and in some cases succeeded in taking their own lives. These Minions have openly mocked Jared’s struggles with depression and anxiety, and Misha - who claims to be friends with J2 and be supportive of them in every way - has stood by and let it all play out, knowing full well some of the goings on, if not the full extent of how toxic these people are. We know he sees things being said online, and I have absolutely no doubt he spends time online searching his name for things that are relevant in some way to him in an effort to insert himself into a current conversation, or even start one so that attention is on him. Gotta stay relevant, somehow, right, Mish?

He has actively encouraged bullying by his actions of enabling the behaviours above, both by the flogging of the aforementioned dead horse, AND by not objecting to unacceptable behaviours. Remember when Minions and Hellers were slating J2, particularly Jared, for not posting on SM about BLM and other topics? Yeah, he didn’t ask them to stop doing that, either, even when he was tagged in things along the lines of ‘If Misha can post why can’t J2?’ etc. There have been some token protests, con vids I've seen have show his 'objections' which IMO have been done in a very tongue in cheek way, meaning that those people who needed to be pulled aside and told to change their ways just carried on, because their evil overlord didn’t explicitly explain it in terms a three year old could understand that bullying and forcing your opinion on others is WRONG. Not all of his cult are young and impressionable, not by a long shot, but many of the more vocal and vitriolic ones are.

As a father himself I wonder what Misha would do if he found out that his kids were behaving in ways his Minions are? I’m aware they’re young, but kids are cruel and bullying doesn’t just happen online. Even at whatever age they are, would he laugh it off the way he appears to have done with all of this fandom toxicity? Not bloody likely! I wonder if he’s as desperate to gain the approval of his family, friends and colleagues as he appears to be for that of his Minions/Hellers? I would certainly hope so, but that question can only be answered by Misha, himself, and I can and will not presume to speak on someone else's behalf on things in their personal life. For the record I would never presume I know what J2's answers would be on anything, however I do feel that after 15 years I have an accurate gauge on what kind of people they are so would be confident that any opinion I had on a matter aligns with their morals and ethics. As much as J2 have shared of themselves with us - willingly and under no pressure to do so, I might add - we don't *know* them, but we know enough to have an informed opinion. I can’t say the same for Misha because based on the behaviour he’s repeatedly displayed, things I've heard about from other fans as well as people I know IRL who have had direct dealings with him through cons or GISH (including some very actively in the early days when it was GISHWHES) he just hasn’t seemed like a person I wanted to follow on SM. I’ve never watched any of his solo panels, though I have watched ones with both or one of the J's, mostly being left irritated because of his behaviour. Watching the J’s put up with that shit is painful, and it’s a testament to how good they are as actors that they managed to hide at least some of their disdain for as long as they did. Microexpressions give them away, particularly Jensen, and they certainly have faces I have spent many years watching closely. Beautiful faces to go with beautiful souls, both of them! <3

I have precisely ZERO interest in Destiel as a ship, very little interest in Cas as a character anymore (though I did like him in the early days,and his relationship with Jack in late seasons) so I have absolutely no reason or desire to follow anything Misha does. That said, I've obviously been peripherally aware of some things he's been involved in because of friends, from things I’ve seen on SM and general fandom stuff. Despite the things I've already mentioned about his behaviour, up until now I have been able to maintain a level of respect for him as a person because of the humanitarian and charity work he's done. He seems like someone who really does want to change the world for the better and I am in full support of that fact, so much so that I have supported TWO campaigns relating to him. I bought one of the Super Good t-shirts for the campaign he did with Michael Sheen (a true angel!), the SPN/Good Omens x-over to help homeless charities, and I chose the design with text only and not artwork of Michael and Misha on, basically because I didn’t want to be wearing something with Misha’s face on it and I make absolutely no apology for that, whatsoever. I also bought Alex's #TheEndHasNoEnd shirt, which some of the profits went to Random Acts who do great work, so again, despite not liking Misha I still willingly contributed for a cause bigger than me, and to support Alex, who I absolutely ADORE. I'm aware that Stands aren't popular with some of the fandom, however since most of the cast of SPN are happily affiliated with them then I don't feel it's my place to either judge, or to discuss topics I know next to nothing about. But I digress, as a decent human being I have shown support tangentially to a man who I don't care for out of respect for the work he does outside the fandom. Telling you this isn’t to paint myself in a good light - I don’t need your approval, I’m a big girl, unlike some I don’t need constant validation! - only to provide background on how I’ve actively *not* hated on Misha.

Now though, any respect I had for him has come to an abrupt end, the events of the past 24 hours has seen to that. Whilst I have been annoyed at his behaviour in regards to shipping, I don't feel it's ever gone this far, or at least not that I've seen first hand. This man has, IMO, contributed to so much toxicity in the fandom by way of things I've mentioned before, he's claimed - without actually saying the words - that Wincest fans weren't interested in him as a character when he came onto the show, and hasn’t felt included because of the fans’ love of the brothers. Um, hate to break it to you, love, but when you come onto an established show that is about two people, and you’re a *guest star* you can’t expect everyone to love you. Some characters we as individuals do fall in love with straight away (Bobby, Charlie, Crowley and Rowena are good examples for me), it takes time to establish a dynamic, so if that’s how he felt then it was incredibly naive of him as an actor to expect instant acceptance from anyone. Also, why wait until after the show finished to bring it up AGAIN … oh wait, yeah, that would be to step back into the limelight in a way intended to garner sympathy from Minions and INTENTIONALLY piss off bro fans and Wincest shippers alike? How fucking self centred, desperate and disrespectful do you have to be to shit all over the finale of a show that for the most part accepted you and kept you in paid work for 12 years? Well, Misha Collins levels of all of those things, obviously.

So, on the topics of self centred, desperate to stay relevant, attention seeking and being oh so needy, the tweet yesterday from Amazon mentioned Castiel. He wasn’t tagged in it, so I refer to my earlier comment about searching online, because how else would he have possibly seen that? It’s possible someone sent it to him, I appreciate that, but if we go off past behaviour it’s not any stretch at all to believe that didn’t happen. So, once again, having seen the tweet he took it upon himself to - oh so predictably - turn it into something relating to Destiel. When I saw it I immediately rolled my eyes and thought ‘here we go again’, but then also had a little smile because I really liked the fact that he explicitly mentioned Wincest, therefore seeming to accept that his poor old dead horse wasn’t the only one in the race. I actually mentally tipped my hat to him then because it appeared that he’s matured enough to acknowledge by name the ship that predates his inclusion on the show. Great, I thought, this is a positive thing in a sea of negativity surrounding the man and his sunken ship, because what followed was Wincest trending in the US (it may also have been other countries as well but I had to sleep!) … largely due to the fact that Hellers were responding to it, calling him out on mentioning the dreaded ‘W’ word. I’ll repeat that because it’s been a rare occurrence up to that point… the Minions were actually disappointed with their overlord for mentioning another ship. We all know what they think of it and I for one, don’t give a flying fuck about their opionion. Ship and let ship, it’s all fun (or meant to be) so we have different tastes, that’s life kiddiwinks, deal with it. I mean, you really don’t have much of an example set for you when your king has proven several times over to be one of the biggest obnoxious brats out there, but just give it a try for your own sakes, yeah? Awesome, good on you, besties!

An unexpected development - to my joy and that of other Wincest shippers - them doing that got the topic trending, only *kept* trending by the fact that were all coming online asking why it was trending. Wincest shippers barely lifted a finger, we just flooded each other’s timelines with lovely content and basked in the Hellers - and Misha - shooting themselves in the foot, which was awesome. But did the vitriol stop? No. Did he get the attention he so clearly craves? Yes. Was it in the way he wanted? Fuck no, so poor, emotionally wounded baby backtracked after seeing that his name was trending alongside Wincest because that’s *so* not what someone narcissistic to do it in the first place, wanted.

Now here’s where I could easily have just moved on with an unusually fond chuckle, giving him an ironic pat on the back and a ‘thanks, Misha’ for being the one to instigate hours of fun, but once again his despicable behaviour made that impossible. It’s been more than obvious for many years that he cares more about what his fans think than anything else to do with the show and the fandom in a larger sense, but to delete the tweet and APOLOGISE for daring to be so insensitive to the snowflakes’ delicate sensibilities for mentioning Wincest in the first place was absolutely disgusting. Stating , “I used a term that I had never really given any thought to other than, "that's a thing?! Yuck." is not only complete and utter bullshit, it’s pandering of the highest order.

We all know he has referred to Wincest on multiple occasions, so to say he hadn’t thought about is a flat out lie, which IMO is an insult to everyone, not just Wincest shippers. Does the man have no self respect at all, why would you contradict yourself in the face of such overwhelming evidence? Instead of either ignoring all the people calling him out, or addressing it with another tweet saying ‘yeah, that happened’ or something similar he chose, I repeat, CHOSE the route of claiming he didn’t realise he was being offensive to people who felt ‘triggered’ by him using the word Wincest. He basically shat all over an entire ship and large sector of the fandom in an attempt to appease his own fan base which consists of a lot of children (or those that act like children) who have no idea what RL is like.

Once again, he’s reinforced the idea that if you shout loud enough at someone just because you don’t like something they said, they will back down and apologise for something even when there’s nothing to apologise for. If he wants to be such a role model then he could easily have pointed out that a fictional ship doesn’t condone RL incest, any ACTUAL trauma people have suffered because of RL situations, and made an effort to make sure people understand that. He COULD have used it as an opportunity to do some good in the fandom by encouraging people to build bridges, to accept that people are entitled to their beliefs and that sometimes we see things differently but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t treat others with BASIC HUMAN DECENCY because of it. Instead he YET AGAIN chose to show that he cares more about what Minions think of him, keeping them onside to constantly stroke his unbelievably fragile ego in everything he does.

It is my understanding that Misha is big on (or claims to be big on) putting positive energy out into the world, treating people with respect, helping others and accepting people for who they are, not who you want them to be… all this after YEARS of consistently practising what he preaches only when it suits him. He sends out a message that it’s perfectly OK to bully, to spread hate, to draw attention to yourself at the cost of others, to throw colleagues and friends under the bus and at the same time use them to further your own agenda and get hits for your YouTube channel. Is this really the legacy he wants to leave? Is this an environment he wants his own kids to grow up in as well as future generations? Is this what he thinks is a valuable contribution as a human being? JFC, the arrogance, hypocrisy and the need for constant validation this man exhibits is nothing short of cringeworthy… actually it’s beyond that. It’s deplorable behaviour, it’s not new, and he will continue to act like this for as long as he’s being enabled and this harmful cycle needs to end.

I have friends IRL and online who are (now, possibly, were) big Misha fans, who have supported him from either the beginning of his run on the show, or since they started watching, and this is how he repays this behaviour? He’s willfully alienating decent people (including multishippers) all to make himself look good by being seen to do everything he can not to offend people. Spoiler alert, you DID offend people, you continue to do so time and again and we’ve had enough. I can’t imagine how exhausting it must be to be such a perpetual people pleaser, but let me say it’s not doing you any favours in any way, shape or form.

Misha, you are *not* a role model, you’re *not* someone to look up to when you can't live up to the ideals you preach. You’re spitting in the face of people who have supported you even after some questionable things in the past, who gave you the benefit of the doubt because we’re all human and we all make mistakes. The key to growing as a person is not to keep repeating the same mistakes over and over, understanding *why* what you said and/or did was a mistake and making a concerted effort to make changes. I don’t ever see you doing that, you will continue down this path of only caring about Minions under the guise of caring for people in general. You are transparent, you are sad and despite the fact I’ve never particularly liked you, I didn’t speak up because I didn’t want to get involved in the drama. Well now I have spoken up and I’m saying you’re a disgrace, you have no respect for other people and nobody is fooled anymore. If it hadn’t been this tweet it would have been something else, but I for one am glad it happened so soon after the show ended so we can finally be rid of the limpet-like behaviour. It’s over, let it go for the sake of what dignity you might have left, for the sake of your family and friends and for the sake of anyone who isn’t capable of seeing through your ‘it’s a joke’ mentality.

You have been weighed, you have been measured and you have been found wanting. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on, Misha.

For anyone who made it to the end of my ramble, thank you. This has been a cathartic exercise and I’m drawing a line under it now, I don’t think I could possibly make my thoughts any clearer. I urge you not to get caught up in any petty squabbles with his Minions, let’s celebrate J2 and other cast and crew members who have shown us all respect and who I am proud to call part of the SPN family. There’s always one member of the family who needs to be frozen out for the good of everyone else.

#ficforthought speaks #sorry not sorry #i spent way too long on this #purging the poison

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diamondcitydarlin · 3 years

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what do you think about the arguments that lokius is being queerbaited? I want to enjoy and ship it so bad but it seems like im setting myself up for disappointment

And I can't assure you with full confidence that you wouldn't be. I can't be certain I won't be, though I've personally chosen to enjoy what is there and extrapolate from what we are given, even as I know that historically, statistically, it's best to assume a mainstream depiction of a m/m relationship in a Disney-Marvel production is pretty slim. But then...not nonexistent and, in many ways, the likelihood of it actually going there is higher than it's ever been. So there is that.

I've been independently studying LGBTQA+/queer representation in mainstream media for over a decade now. The term 'queerbaiting' is relatively new in fandom spaces (if we're looking big picture, back into the earliest films and TV shows, some of the earliest shipping fandoms like Star Trek), as I only started seeing it maybe around 2012-2014. It's a term I appreciate, because it represented a switch in cultural thinking from holding no expectations of creatives in Hollywood to large swaths of LGBTQA+ fans gaining the confidence to say 'no, this isn't good enough'.

It also represents the switch in Capitalist approaches to LGBTQA+ citizens, from catering solely to the religious, satanic panic morality by pretending gay people simply don't exist, to deciding that gay fans are in fact lucrative and need to be included just enough to feel inclined to monetarily contribute to a brand. They'll write scenes between characters with intentionally confusing, ambiguous energy, give them moments that are meant to be read into deeply, but rarely, rarely, with any kind of payoff that would alienate homophobic investors. The insidiousness of this tactic is in the fact that when payoff does not happen, viewers can be easily gaslit into thinking that was never the intention in the first place, they were the ones who were wrong in their takes. As I've worked professionally in entertainment as actress, director and producer with rather big capitalist brands I won't mention names of, I can assure you this -is- very much a thing, please stop giving corporations the benefit of the doubt.

There is no clean definition or qualification for queerbaiting, despite how often people want to gatekeep how gay viewers use this term. To be clear though, it is an accountability term before anything else. Not an insult, not an accusation that someone isn't good at what they do, it's a reminder that we're owed more than what we're usually given. If we don't speak out, if we don't label things queerbaiting (when they very much usually are), if we don't demand better we will never, ever, ever get it. I promise you that.

Okay, so now that we've established what queerbaiting is at least in my mind...

Do I think Lokius is being queerbaited? Yes, possibly. I'm waiting to see how the rest of the narrative plays out before I come to a definitive conclusion on my own (yes I'm actually optimistic I say as I put on clown make up), but I'm also not going to deny LGBTQA+ fans the right to feel like that's what's happening and voice their opinions. Anyone tasked with writing/creating content for mainstream audiences has a huge responsibility, in that this content will reach millions of people and has the potential to help shape our culture, perceptions- it even has the potential to help normalize and give broad optics of what it means to be queer and have queer relationships, romantic and otherwise. None of this is as trifling as, 'it's just a TV show', because it's never that simple.

As far as Lokius itself is concerned, the show spent a great deal of time first developing their bond and dynamic before (seemingly) switching gears towards elevating romantically the first feminine-presenting character Loki ran into even though there are some clear, uhm...conflicts with the idea of this actually being a thing. If it becomes a thing. It also seemed to first build a solid, unique platonic bond between the 'fem' and 'masc' character that a lot of gay fans would have appreciated seeing playing out before having them mashed together haphazardly as a romantic pairing, as has been done in media for 50+ years now. That's to say nothing of the fact that the most visible feminine character being forced into role of 'love interest' for a broken main character is one we've had to see play out over and over and over and over again too, poorly. People have a right to feel frustrated about that and voice their frustrations accordingly. We expected more of this show than that. (And yes, I am bisexual, I know that it would still technically be a queer relationship, but please consider the broader history/picture here of queer rep in media and the optics of that against that mosaic, please consider the heteronormative lens that so often claims any and every possibility for itself, please consider the long history of how feminine characters are often used as coping tools and objects of lust before they are treated as individuals deserving of their own development)

Now, again, I want to say that I am not convinced of anything really right now. I'm not taking any of the writers at face value because they are all bound by contracts and NDAs and aren't going to come out and say what the outcome of the show will be, so nothing they're putting out on twitter or in interviews is something I will be taking as absolute truth beyond assuming they're trolling, maybe even have been instructed to keep the pot boiling in the fandom through social media antics. Don't rule it out.

Things really could go either way, but my point is I do not deny the possibility of what this is and I'm certainly not going to gatekeep how other gay viewers feel they're being queerbaited, and I really don't see any reason why anyone else should either.

#lokius #im a little stoned and got wordy #to be clear i love lokius it is my life #but i have to pair it with my intimate knowledge of what goes on in capitalist entertainment #also i choose to use the term queer and im not going to debate that with anyone sorry

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autisticcassandracain · 3 years

Text

I have many thoughts on the weird phenomena in the DC fandom and the Batfam fandom specifically where probably the majority of people just straight up. haven’t interacted with the source material. and almost all of those thoughts can be summarized as ‘lmao that’s weird and mildly concerning’.

and because I’m annoying I will list them all here right now <3

1. To preface this post, I mean, obviously, comics are inaccessible as all hell, both in the disability kind of way and the ‘you need to understand the concept of hypertime to fully comprehend the DC timeline’ kind of way. Because of this, even if you don’t have a disability that prevents you from reading comics, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to look at the amount of comics you need to read to have even a base understanding of a character and go ‘no thanks <3′ and just enjoy fanart and fanfic in a vacuum. Ultimately, this is fandom, this is supposed to be fun, it doesn’t really matter.

2. That said, it’s VERY weird to me that the majority of this fandom just straight up hasn’t interacted with the source material, and moreover, that it’s considered rude to tell people that they should do so. It’s especially weird considering the amount of fanon-only fans I’ve seen who straight up have a superiority complex over canon. The idea that it’s gatekeeping to tell fans of something to actually interact with canon is just. so weird, and a fundamental misunderstanding of what ‘gatekeeping’ actually entails.

3. But honestly I’m less interested in discussing the ways in which canon and fanon fans should interact with each other (personally, I think it would be helpful to create separate tags of some kind, but that’d require quite a big overhaul of the current fandom state) than in figuring out how this actually happened in the first place. On the one hand, it’s obvious; long-running superhero comics the way DC writes them have made themselves so thoroughly inaccessible that most people are simply too daunted to even try. Most media has a cohesive beginning and end (or at least, a planned end somewhere). Comics just... don’t.

But I do think it says something that, even among people who are clearly interested in the characters (since they have, you know, entire blogs about them), the effort to get into comics just seems to be too much to even bother. This really doesn’t bode well for the future of DC Comics. Obviously, I am no expert on anything at all ever, but I’d personally be surprised if DC survives beyond the few decades, at least in its current form/without a big overhaul.

4. But on the other hand, I don’t think the confusing state of DC Comics is the only thing to blame here. Fandom has a well-known problem with reducing any character down to archetypes to more easily ship and write fic/make content with. This problem is particularly prominent in fanfic, which, if you read enough of it, you’ll eventually start seeing not just the same tropes and trends, but essentially the same fics over and over again. And not just within the same fandom; everywhere, or every large fandom, at least.

Fanon Batfam is entirely built on a bunch of those tropes; insecure/depressed sadboy Tim, team mom with optional hidden trauma/emotional problems Dick, bad boy with a heart of gold + sadboy combo Jason, abused sadboy Damian/angry easily-villified-for-fic-reasons monster Damian, good dad Bruce for found family fic and bad dad Bruce for angst fic, etc. This all culminates in a found family dynamic that’s generic and malleable to whatever fic the writer wants to write.

(This isn’t getting into the ship fic, which I avoid like the plague because the vast majority of it is incest, but I’d bet real actual money that the tropes in those fics fall under what is often preferred by the Migratory Slash Fandom.)

By having a decent excuse not to get into canon (the inaccessibility of comics) and a, by now, well-established fanon fandom, many fans feel free to use the batfam fandom as essentially an excuse to write whatever fic with reduced archetypes and tropes they personally feel the itch to write, without having to bother with even consuming a canon. This is compounded by the fact that canon itself is often contradictory and frankly bad, meaning that whatever interpretation of a character you want/need to go for your fic is at least theoretically backed up by canon (for example, you can just as easily cast Bruce as an abusive shithole dad who his kids need to get away from as a loving father figure who cares deeply for his children), which you can always use as a defense if people question your characterization.

5. This focus on fandom trends and tropes over actual creativity or care for the characters is also visible in the way bigotry manifests in this fandom; namely, in literally the exact way you’d expect. The female characters and characters of colour are shuffled to the side, non-existent, vilified, and/or reduced to harmful stereotypes.

Barbara is probably the one I saw the most often in fanfic, but usually just as ‘Dick’s girlfriend’, and even then, she was often vilified for Dick angst (especially in fics about examining Dick’s trauma from his canon sexual assault; Kori also often gets the short end of the stick in those). After that, probably Stephanie, who fanon fans don’t really seem to know what to do with, so she’s basically just there as comic relief waffle girl, most of the time, though sometimes she can be used to either further Tim angst or further vilify Tim, whatever the fic calls for. Cass has gotten included more in batfam fics as of late, likely in response to critiques of fandom racism for leaving her out, but again, it’s clear people don’t actually know what to do with her. She’s often reduced to a racist stereotype of a quite, stoic therapist for whatever guy du jour needs it. That, or she’s in Hong Kong and just not there. Duke especially gets left in the dust in fandom, usually just being non-existent, but when he’s there, he’s almost always nothing more than the straight man for the actual fun characters to play off of. Talia probably has it the worst, though, and almost universally gets vilified by fanon stans in order to write sadboy Damian.

All of this is extremely predictable behaviour and falls entirely in line with general fandom misogyny and racism; ignoring or vilifying women and characters of colour, or using them as very minor characters at best. The only two characters of colour who aren’t regularly left out of fic are Dick and Damian, who are both also conveniently the two characters most often drawn and written in a whitewashed manner. In addition, there’s a real trend of demonizing Damian in fanon fics where he isn’t written as an abused sadboy, which I’d argue is in no small part due to fandom racism, considering Damian’s behaviour is in no way as bad as Jason’s, who doesn’t get anywhere close to the same demonization and gets woobiefied instead. I also find it convenient that Damian is probably the batboy who receives the most vilification in fic, when he’s the most obviously non-white of the batboys they’re willing to acknowledge.

Fandom often cries for more diversity in canon, only to ignore the diversity already there and focus on the same generic white guys. The batfam fandom is a brilliant example of this.

Which is not to say that fandom racism and misogyny isn’t present in the canon parts of the fandom (and canon itself); it absolutely 100% is. But I’ve found that canon fans are also more likely to like and care about at least one of the characters I’ve listed as ignored/vilified, and are willing to create and consume content for them, whereas fanon fans... aren’t, really. I’ve never seen a fan of fanon Cass the way I’ve seen fans of fanon Dick, for example. Obviously, this could just be by coincidence, or I’ve just surrounded myself with people like that, but it’s been a trend I noticed. Racism and misogyny is present in every part of this fandom and should be addressed as such, but I feel like it manifests the most blatantly in the fanon parts of this fandom.

(I’d also recommend the articles Migratory Slash Fandom’s Focus and Beige Blank Slates, which expand more on the type of fandom racism I think is especially prominent in the batfam fandom, as well as literally every article in the What Fandom Racism Looks Like series.)

6. All this leads me to conclude that the majority of fanon fans don’t actually like the characters all that much; they’re convenient excuses for them to participate in fandom. Which I also think is, in no small part, a reason why so many of them react so negatively to being told to pick up a comic; they came to this fandom specifically to consume it as a fandom, because they wanted the fandom experience without having to consume a canon.

This is not a phenomena unique to the batfam fandom (again, see the Migratory Slash Fandom), but it does fascinate me. While fandom is often said to be an experience focusing on transformative art, I think it’s also safe to say that, especially as fandom has become more mainstream, an increasing amount of people are looking to it less as a way to engage with their favourite pieces of media, and more as a type of media in and of itself. I think the reasons for this are similar to the reasons mass media entertainment like the MCU are so popular; you gain a lot of enjoyment out of it with very little risk involved.

By consuming the same fics of the same characters (or the same archetypes) over and over again, you are rarely at risk of being challenged or even disappointed. It’s often very clear right from the start whether or not a fic will appeal to you, and if it isn’t, it’s easy to just look for another one. It requires less emotional investment than most other types of media, even ‘popcorn media’ like the MCU - or, yes, DC Comics. It’s safe, it’s enjoyable, it’s comforting, like McDonalds, but just like McDonalds, it’s ultimately bland and unsubstantial.

7, TL;DR. Ultimately, I don’t think it’s like, wrong to enjoy the fanon version of the batfam without wanting to engage with canon, and I certainly don’t think it’s okay to harrass people over it. But I do think it’s in large part based on a desire to interact with fandom rather than other pieces of media because people are scared of being let down by those pieces of media (or worse, just uninterested in actually thinking), which is mildly concerning.

#long post #my posts #infodumping #btw i say this as someone who also has trouble consuming much more than popcorn media/fanfic due to emotional exhaustion #but it's not a healthy habit and it's something people can and should try to break out of #also obviously this isn't about EVERY fanon fan specifically so if this doesn't apply to you specifically great then move on

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hoodoo12 · 3 years

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Whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa

Hold up, hold up there-- Someone’s salty.

(mixing fandoms there, but it’s the indomitable Alex Brightman so it’s okay)

@my-name-is-louise won’t be directed to this post; I can’t tag her because she has me blocked. It did come to my attention, however, that she made a post filled with lies, ‘tagged’ me specifically in it, and insulted a large group in this fandom.

Here is a screenshot of her post (again, can’t reblog because of the aforementioned blockage):

Let’s break this down, shall we?

1) Howard Phillips Lovecraft was a racist and anti-Semitic. Yes on all counts. Even trying to use the “he was a product of his time” argument doesn’t hold water. His personal views were horrible now and they were horrible then. I don’t know anyone who stans the man’s personality as an idol, and not only was I reading Lovecraft before you were born, I belong to multiple Lovecraft fanclubs and groups. We admire the Lovecraft’s ability to world-build and create horror (along with others, such Robert Chambers, an author who influenced him) that was beyond the scope of human- or folklore-based terror. His fiction created a legacy that extends to this day. Hell, I just watched a movie last night called Underwater that was one of the most recent films drawing heavy inspiration from his work.

People that I know don’t stan HP Lovecraft. It’s complex, but we can love what he contributed to the field of horror and dislike the man personally. That’s actually a thing that can happen, unlike you who seems to only see things THIS WAY or THAT WAY.

Most people in this fandom aren’t Lovecraft fans. They may not even know about him, or Lovecraftian/cosmic/weird horror. Some do, and they created art and stories featuring aspects of it.

I, however, gave Beetlejuice tentacles based on the fact that the DC run of the musical had his name as “Lawrence Shoggoth Betelgeuse” and Juno was “Juno Shoggoth”. The writers took inspiration from Lovecraft’s creations, and I ran with it because you know what? I like tentacles and other people like tentacles. It’s fun and fits into the musical’s canon.

2) Some people hc Musical Beetlejuice as Jewish and/or gay. Or bi. Or pan. Or ace. Or trans. Or female. Other people do not. He is a fictional character. He can be anything anyone wants to imagine. Since you’ve got a hate on for me, I’ll state I have never in my own personal works said Musical Beetlejuice was Jewish or gay. That does not mean I try to force other people to accept my hcs as the only ones that are correct. Gatekeeping this fandom is your hill to die on, not mine.

3) Neither Burton or Keaton created Beetlejuice, but Lovecraft did. What the actual fuck are you talking about? Literally no one has ever claimed this. This may make sense in your head, but trust me, it’s dumb as fuck.

4) My tiny clique of idiots! I don’t think I’ve laughed so hard at anything for a while reading that, till I got to your next couple of libelous insults. I really, really want to tag that “tiny clique of idiots” but Tumblr has a line limit on posts. Don’t worry! I will be putting a link to this in the Beetlejuice discord servers I belong to so everyone can enjoy your unfounded, lying hate.

5) My ignorance is offensive. I don’t know what ignorance you’re specifically talking about (I’ll assume you think you “schooled” me on the Lovecraft stuff because you’re already an ass). Your random bursts of hate are offensive. Your lack of anything creative or constructive to the fandom is offensive.

6) I objectify gay people. Uh . . . what? This one I really would like a reply to because . . . what?

7) I’m a bigot in Woke clothing. Nope. Being “woke” directly counters your libel that I’m a Nazi. You might want to actually look up the definition of bigot, because it’s suspiciously close to your attitude for others in this fandom.

8) Eat shit. Nah. What I am going to do is see Alex Brightman talk about tentacles later today (which he knows is from me) and write more on the rps I’m doing with friends. They all feature Beetlejuice and they all have tentacles in them! Good times.

In all honesty and all snarkiness aside, this musical and the part of the fandom that came from it seems to make you so angry because it is not what you want and you simply cannot understand that people from all over the world were brought together by it. People have fun together and are creating and for some reason that personally offends you. You can’t “find your tribe” because you’re combative and both cannot see past your own ideas of the character and are too rigid to even accept that other people like something you do not.

I feel sorry for you.

#discourse #discourse made personal #Beetlejuice #Alex Brightman #HP Lovecraft #lies and hate #libel #Louise discourse

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camilliar · 3 years

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recs for someone new to omgcp

[February 2021.]

Reading, or not reading, OMGCP fics has come up in a couple of conversations I’ve had recently with artists newish to the fandom (ie. @jovishark; @decafffff), who are making OMGCP art (!!!) but haven’t started exploring fic -- but maybe want to? Which of course reminded me that I’ve never bothered to make an actual, concrete recs list for this fandom. So, I mean. Here is one.

The approach is, what do I think about when I think about OMGCP fanfic? What comes to mind, what stands out to me? I have excluded some very popular fics. Some of these I just don’t think are very good, and others I do think are good, and/or I enjoy them, but I don’t see why you’d need me, specifically, to recommend them. I am thinking of a story like maybe i’m waking up, which I discuss below because I link to a podfic of it. It has a lot of merits, to be sure, but it’s the second-most-read fic in this fandom by hits, and it’s got thousands of comments, and it’s by an author whose work is relatively widely praised and circulated. I am not sure what telling you more about this fic will add to the conversation; if you want to find and read it, you inevitably will. I’m happy to, say, answer asks about these kinds of fics, or talk more generally about them via DM or whatever. Feel free.

Also, I don’t think there’s a point to pretending to be objective about fanfic; this list has a perspective and that perspective is mine. In this fandom I largely read stories that navigate the tension around Jack, Bitty, and Parse, in various permutations. This is not to say that I’ve never read fic about the frogs, or that I have no interest at all in other pairings, but I am by no means an expert on Dex/Nursey and can really only speak to the one fic about them that sticks out to me because it goes beyond being merely Dex/Nursey and does something else. This is just to say that I am sure there are great and interesting fics about other things and ideas--but I’m not the person to hear about those from.

Likewise, I’m not super interested in stories that really reproduce that which is already in OMGCP. I like Zimbits--albeit maybe not in the ways or for the reasons most fans would--but I do not really need to see endless iterations of the same story about them falling in love and being cute together. I don’t think these stories are bad or they shouldn’t exist or that they have no merit by default. Still, I don’t need fanfic to give me more OMGCP. I need fanfic to complicate, to comment on, and to transform OMGCP. Many people don’t work like this! Totally okay! But I can’t rec you fics that do that.

What I have noticed, however, is that over time there appears to have been a shift in how people do write fic for this fandom. (Other than, you know, increases and decreases in activity pending the status of the comic, pairings going in and out of vogue, and so on.) Early on, say during Y1 and Y2, the comic was about the group of friends having a cool time at college together; about whether the burgeoning attraction between Jack and Bitty would manifest and, if so, how; and, especially, Jack’s past coming into fuller view for Bitty and how it would have to be dealt with in order for a relationship between them to work. YMMV on how great the comic executed there, but as Y3 went on these themes increasingly disappeared from the story. I think this means a lot of fic written over 2015-2016 or 2017 has one kind of tone, and was written mostly around these questions; after that, it feels like a new crop of writers and a new crop of ideas started circulating, that is, either embracing Jack and Bitty’s canon relationship and accepting its relative straightforwardness in text--or deconstructing it, imagining what readers aren’t seeing, or how problems not dealt with in the comic would manifest later. People who have read my fic know which of these I’m mainly interested in exploring.

All of which is to say, looking at what I’m reccing here, when the fics were posted or when I first read them probably has a lot to do with why they stick out to me so much. Because there’s no real culture of fanfic criticism--and I mean that in the positivist sense of broad evaluation not explicitly for fault and merit but rather, for context--I think it’s really hard to keep this in mind. But I’m obnoxious and I can’t just be easy about things.

Fic recs

In alphabetical order, somewhat unsorted; if a stand-alone fic has a summary I’ve included it, but in other cases I’ve recced a couple of conceptually related fics or series, which I’ve tried to just describe or explain as opposed to copying the summary off AO3.

There are so many more fanfics I think are great and worth reading! In an ideal world I’d come back and add more later, or create a secondary list that’s more along the lines of “if you like this, read these,” or whatever. But, being realistic, this is a starter kit. I’m open to talking about fanfic.

- - - - - - - - - - -

7-0-2 by Idday; Friends in Low Places and Sorry for the Blood in Your Mouth; I Wish it was Mine by blue_rocket_frost | I’m not sure it would be correct to say that I don’t like Parse/Tater, or that I’m not interested in Parse/Tater. I’m not interested in Patater a priori; I think it could be interesting, with teeth. These fics stick out to me when I think about this pairing, because they feel different. Accusations of a preference for just linking any two white men who happen to be hanging around have validity, but because of what hockey is and how it works and who’s hanging around it, it’s not exactly a leap to imagine what kind of gritty spark the friction between two closeted NHL players would create. A little violence in your sex? A little sex in your violence.

A Sight Worth Seeing by sadtomato | A four-fic Jack/Bitty/Shitty/Lardo explicit BDSM series. Either you want that or you don’t. It’s nothing hardcore, and not properly a four-way, really; more properly a kind of voyeuristic round-robin. There’s a more open and egalitarian view of sex here than I really get from the characters in the back end of the comic. It’s an expansive, propulsive view of sex and relationships that’s really nice to see. I love Lardo's detached coolness, and Bitty as a smooth operator; if you’re looking for some kind of Dom/sub dynamics world, this really isn’t it, but it’s a lively exploration into the sexual dynamics in a group of friends that’s super close to the good-times vibe you get from Haus scenes in the first couple years of extras.

call me son (one more time) by Summerfrost, Verbyna, and blithelybonny | This is a series, incomplete, and you will love it or be massively put off by it. I mean that as a compliment. I love it. The premise is, Bob Zimmermann and Kent Parson have been having sex since Kent was, like, 19. Everyone in this story has been chewed up: by themselves, by each other, by hockey. Plainly, this is a pretty bleak view of what OMGCP, as a story, is supposedly offering. If you want fic that is dark and glamorous, treading the toxic melange of substance abuse, sex-as-sublimation, and so much money you can’t possibly throw all of it away without trying, this series has that sick-inducing shimmer to it. But, again, its strength is its examination of Kent Parson, textually and meta-textually, as someone to be projected onto. Bob, Alicia, Jack, and Bitty all impute certain feelings of their own onto him, displacing their own issues to a character who’s centralized in every fic but defies neat or total comprehension. Some critiques I’ve read of this series feel it’s too dark, and I’ve also seen it argued on FFA that an overwhelming amount of praise heaped onto these stories has made it tough for other writers to make headway in writing Bob/Kent fic. But I’m also not sure you could engage with Bob/Kent fic without going down this road at some point? I’m sure there are ways to scale it back, but ultimately it’s a story about how hockey’s violent, homophobic, old-guard gatekeeping has continued to set the terms for a younger and ostensibly less toxic culture. I fully embrace PWP fics that tread on the power dynamic without fully excavating it, but buried within any PWP is the fact that a 53-year-old man is ensnaring a 19-year-old, no matter how much the latter is, realistically, into it, and legally empowered to consent. Not to mention the dynamics of it being a 53-year-old man who is the father of the 19-year-old’s ex-boyfriend, and a 53-year-old man who is an eminence grise in the field the 19-year-old is trying to make a career in The sexual element--the vaguely incestuous nature of it--is making textual the subtext of how hockey works, actually: objectification of teenage bodies as older men’s capital.

Coach Z by thistidalwave | Just before the 2009 NHL Entry Draft, tp prospect Jack Zimmermann overdoses on his anxiety medication and is admitted to rehab. His future turns from a clear-cut road to the top into an uncertain path filled with therapy appointments, ignored text messages, a group of boys who aren't there to teach him a lesson about himself, and, of course, hockey. | I keep reccing this fic because it has 360 comments on AO3 but nobody, as far as I can tell, has ever read it; it never appears on rec lists. This isn’t the kind of fanfic I usually go in for, but I can’t help being charmed by it. This is a character study in the truest sense, a kind of Mighty Ducks-but-better view on what Jack’s time coaching peewee hockey might have been like. I have no interest in kids and my own aesthetic is maybe a little darker than this, but I admire this story because it injects vibrancy into a period of Jack’s life that OMGCP has left largely unexplored, and so has the fandom. We know nothing about what made Jack want to go to college, nothing about how he spent his days in between juniors and Samwell. It posits a very sympathetic and patient Jack/Parse dynamic, showcasing the exact kind of ragged teenage push-and-pull that would have led to the circumstances we see in Parse I-III. The outside perspective Jack needs is largely present in an OFC who’s not a love interest. Super unique, somehow both engrossing and low-key.

#dirtbags by angularmomentum | A series that is a Kent Parson/Claude Giroux fuckfest with feelings. I’ve long suspected that Parse is popular in part because he is the character who most easily elides OMGCP with the actual NHL, or rather, NHL fandom; I think he made it appealing to write OMGCP fics where the NHL is a factor. Case in point, this series, which is basically “what if Kent Parson was a real hockey player and therefore part of NHL RPS”? I have only read some NHL RPS, so I’m not the person to assess accuracy, but what I do know is superstar IRL hockey players take turns here as the caricature fanfic versions of themselves, and since Kent Parson is already that, it’s great how seamlessly he integrates into their social fabric. Rambunctious energy peppered with regret and loss, but ultimately this series is farcical, and it doesn’t take its sentimental ending too seriously--which, good.

fated to pretend by nighimpossible | 5 Jack/Kent fics that Ransom and Holster dramatically reenact for the Haus + the truth. | As a fic format, 5+1 doesn’t usually work for me, but this one isn’t just front-loaded with five too-knowing vignettes; it then wraps up by using its +1 better than you might expect. Sometimes I talk about economy of fic, and this one exemplifies it. A zero-waste fic.

go ahead and move along by originally | "Leave, Parse," Jack says. Again. Or: Kent finds himself stuck in a time loop. | Kent Parson is trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario on the day of Epikegster. I’m sure you can imagine, just from that, what happens. And yet I think this fic is super entertaining, reserving some key surprises. What this story is doing is something a lot, and perhaps even the majority, of great Jack/Parse fic wants to do: digging into the question of just why this can’t work in comic canon. Most often this is approached from the past, by writing teenage Jack/Parse deep-dives that examine their lives mid-juniors, or by writing AUs where enough circumstances are shifted that it does work, or via future fics that posit enough growth has happened, and enough things have changed. But this fic makes Parse live the same bad day again and again, testing multiple theories about just how dependent on circumstance and incident real life actually is. Another day, another tone, 10 minutes sooner, not at all--you just can’t know why it didn’t work until you exhaust every possible variable. I worry that this rec has sucked the life out of the story, though--it’s so fun!

I Saw a Life and Strange Lovers by @bluegrasshole | Most AUs in this fandom seem to retell the story in a new setting or with some big detail change, following OMGCP’s rhythm beat-for-beat. I think of this as, “It’s the plot of Check, Please, but” -- they’re doing high school football? They’re acrobats? They’re a/b/o? They’re in a DIY punk band? And so on. These two stories are not that! They’re both 1950s AUs, each deeply felt, and yet hugely different from each other. I Saw a Life is about displacement and fragmentation, two sides of a similar but incongruent social critique; Strange Lovers is a finely wrought social drama about coal mining in Nova Scotia in the 1950s, centered around historical events. I suppose a theme on this rec list is something like, “I don’t even like this, but” -- yes, okay, I don’t even like Dex/Nursey, but--! This fic is so overwhelmingly complete, the AU laid out so carefully that the story breathes with all the background details informing the writing that aren’t actually, in the story; you just know they’re below the surface. (With the exception of one investigation of Jack’s character in a short, separate fic.) I Saw a Life, meanwhile, really tests the limits of the notion that Jack and Bitty are soulmates--not by calling it into question but by asking, rather innovatively, how the setting and place of the comic itself activates that.

Les Hivers de mon enfance by staranise | What do you do when hockey is the language of prayer for your soul, and also the toxic thing that almost killed you? 2009: Jack Zimmermann takes a mental health year. God knows he needs it. | Here’s a fic by someone who’s no longer around so much, but she felt ubiquitous in 2016-2019 OMGCP fandom. Before any of that, though, she wrote this one lovely fic about Jack’s pre-Samwell recovery. The author is Canadian and really irritated by hockey culture, and I think this fic benefits greatly because she is clear-eyed about Jack’s being caught in an exploitative system; it’s hockey he’s in recovery for, in a way. There’s an epistolary element that works for me, too. I read this early on in my time in OMGCP fandom and it really stuck with me.

Lysistrata? I Hardly Know Her! (by which I mean everything) by @tomatowrites | It feels somehow like cheating to recommend OMGCP fanfics by my OMGCP BFF with whom I make an OMGCP podcast where we talk about OMGCP. You know the fics I really want to rec, like truly the ones that speak to some kind of shared depravity, are the ones where Jack is miserably mpreg for the second time and accidentally lets his kid see Kent Parson’s Long John Silver’s shrimp scampi promo spot, which obviously would get twisted into a self-hating three-way. How many times do I have to rec this fic? As many as I need to, is my feeling. If you don’t know, Long John Silver’s is an American fast-food chain that sells, like, fried pollock sandwiches; it is nautical-themed; I have never eaten there; I don’t know where there is one; I don’t eat fried fish. (Shrimp, on the other hand?) All of which is to say that it takes a real genius to investigate a premise that far out. And while a lot of people almost certainly will start reading this humanity’s depths-themed sex scene and back the fuck out, readers with refined taste will note that Kent, the point-of-view character, is right there with you, despairing that he can’t help himself. And so long as you’re in that story collection, honestly, you’ll love petite gems like Jack is transmasc, Jack and Shitty play hockey in 18th-century England, and oh, right, he’s from Georgia. Tomato holds the distinction of being probably the gamest author I know in this fandom, just really like fearless in her pursuit of any range of concept she’s pushed to. (I can push her to?) See, for example, a sublime bandom AU; Bitty is cancelled for buying a maybe-unethically exported Roman fragment of a youth’s torso; or, god, the masterwork that is this future fic series where Jack keeps relapsing and Bitty exiles him to their guesthouse. Do I think you need to read a fic where Bitty is snide about the teen prostitute whose baby they’re adopting? Yes, I mean, he would be snide, don’t tell me he wouldn’t. I could go on, but my main thing here is, if I have to pick just one, I’m going to pick this Lysistrata fic. The premise, literally, is that Bitty reads the Lysistrata and it gives him ideas. Like most of Tomato’s OMGCP fic, it’s a stripping away of the comic’s polite fiction that Jack and Bitty could possibly attain the ideal it reaches in the comic without some kind of messy, efflusive breakdown. Life is like that, you see! Tricky. Like a lot of people, although it’s tough to say precisely how many, I have always intuited that maybe Bitty is kind of a natural top? But obviously when you meet him, as a literal virgin, it’s hard to see how he’d go from zero to self-actualization so neatly. This fic floats a theory, and it has a fun little side plot for Whiskey, something I never thought about or needed before Tomato built it out herein. In conclusion, BONUS: Dex’s gay lobster novel.

only fools rush in and the light of all lights by decinq | This person wrote of the nature of the wound, one of the early, formative Jack/Bitty fics that was oft-recced when I was getting into the fandom in 2016. It forms part of a larger series that deals deeply with how Jack has been shaped by his struggles (? I hate this word) with homophobia and his own mental health. It’s a picture of the character as you might have imagined him much earlier in the comic’s run. The formatting is atrocious and he author’s flair is what Tomato would call “AO3 house style.” It’s a voice that works great for her writing. I think it’s at its best in these shorter fics; the former is about Parse and Shitty stumbling into a relationship almost accidentally; the latter, an eerie PBJ vampire fic. I had begun writing a fic where Parse is a vampire early on in this fandom, only to read this and immediately quit, because you only need one, and this one’s all I need. The Parse/Shitty rare pair fic shares its exuberance with hockey RPS when it’s good: here’s how fun it can be when you’re young, rich, and jocular. And I don’t even like accidental marriage AUs, they’re usually boring, so that says a lot. By all means, read the wound fic; read the entire series. But these are highly unusual.

OVERDOSE and Oomph and a little spin-o-rama by jedusaur | None of these are long, or plotty, and they’re all a little experimental. OVERDOSE is an AU set in a world where you know how you’ll die, but no details; Oomph, a little fic where Jack hears hockey pucks talking to him. This is the kind of stuff I used to think I’d find in fandom forever, coming out of Lotrips lurking in the 2000s: short, zany bursts of energy that surprise and delight. a little spin-o-rama peers at Kent’s character through the grim reality of being the hypertalented superstar stuck on a dead-last team. All three are sparse and stylish in a way that’s really smart, practically economical.

Sowing Season by @agrossunderstatement | Parse and Zimms, Zimms and Parse. Kent Parson's life, from the Q, through his early years with the Aces, to Jack's senior year. Canon divergent. A story of love, loss, moving on, regressing, hockey, and found families of all kinds. | Effectively a novel, digging into Kent’s personal history, mostly concerning his life in juniors but expanding into his present, overlapping with the plot of OMGCP. I think there is room enough for endless speculations on what went down pre-canon; this one offers a fuller life for Kent than nearly any others, digging into him as a whole person rather than as a satellite to Jack or the plot of the comic. Which isn’t to say that the Kent/Jack stuff isn’t dealt with here; it explicitly is. But the fact of Kent Parson’s life, if we can begin to imagine it beyond mere text, would exist before, after, and alongside Jack; he gets to juniors without Jack, presumably, and he is the captain of a hockey team without Jack, and Pinkerton lays the foundation of Parse’s character within a junior hockey that Jack also inhabits, more so that Parse existing for Jack, so to speak. And I’m not implying this latter tactic is wrong; I have certainly employed it, and others have employed it to great impact and effect. But, still, the title of this series tells you what you ought to know: Kent and his story are the potentiality of OMGCP, up to a point; seeds being planted. Young hockey players, similarly. The question implied there is, what will be reaped? And the answer to the latter, in a sense, that reaping is a sort of violence. Which makes this series sound pretty heavy, but it’s not -- more like, realistic.

(tell everyone) you were a good wife by @queerofcups | The biggest problem with pretending that he doesn’t know that Kent Parson is fucking his husband is that Jack can’t tell Kent how grateful he is. | The ne plus ultra of PBJ triangulation; I’ve been squealing to the writer about how good it is since August, begging for behind-the-scenes insights, and I’d only do that if I really meant it. The precarious social fabric stretched across these three chapters is fraying before the reader’s eyes. The details are delicious, and I don’t want to spoil them, but they sing in chorus with the plot. My favorite OMGCP fics, honestly, remove the romance narrative guardrails that keep things in the comic itself humming along. I think Dann’s take is to ask who in this comic has power and what they would end up doing with it. (Or not doing, from another angle.) At one point, early on in its telling, OMGCP looked like it was going to be a story dealing with the compounded traumas of hockey’s discontents. Then, of course, it wasn’t. This is a fic that steps back and asks what the fallout of that oversight would be. But that’s just the moldering core of this fanfic; it’s actually embroidered, like I said, with glittering detail. The color of the suit Bitty wears to his wedding is burned into my brain. The gray manicure of a woman Jack knows. The ingredients in a cake. This is one of those fics I still haven’t reviewed because the thought of stacking everything I could say about it into mere AO3 comments is inadequate.

when you’re ready by megancrtr | The Aces’ director of communications gets the call at 3:13 a.m. Jack Zimmermann has withdrawn from the draft. | “What happened at the draft” is so mythological it gets asked in the comic proper, and I’ve never counted how many fics attempt to answer this question--from Kent’s point of view, even--but it’s gotta be, oh, hundreds. This story replays the situation from the perspective of an Aces staffer who just wants to do her job, and gets at the jarring discordance between the plot of OMGCP in its quest for social justice and the business of actual hockey. Important context is that this story was written around the time the comic was playing out the end of Y3 and start of Y4, and Bitty pointedly asked Jack the question, “why can’t we?” This story reframes the question as literal, rather than rhetorical. A sterling example of fanfic being a gloss on its source.

BONUS, podfics

hockeyed up | There are many things on Jack's mind. Namely: hockey, hockey, Bitty, hockey, anxiety, hockey, hockey, anxiety, Bitty, hockey, hockey, anxiety, and hockey. | A fic read aloud by its French-Canadian author. Also a relatively early OMGCP fanfic; composed while the first semester of Y2 was posting, the story suggests a version of OMGCP that was in some ways more and in other ways less complex than what it would turn into not long after. The real power of this podfic, however, is that it’s read by the writer, so you can hear the intended emphasis in every line. Also, because she’s French-Canadian, Sophie’s intonation is what I picture when I read or write dialogue for Jack.

maybe i’m waking up | It’s almost funny. All he ever wanted was to play hockey, to play in the NHL, to win the Cup. This—Samwell, the team, the Haus—was supposed to be just a detour, but now it feels more like a destination he failed to realize he’s already reached.(Or: Jack signs with the Falconers, graduates, and leaves. It's the hardest thing he's ever done. What comes after is even harder.) | Don’t get too excited; this isn’t finished. A podfic of probably the best-known, most-recced fic in OMGCP fandom. Striking for its use of metatext woven into the story, this is one of several early longform Jack/Bitty fics that posits that maybe Jack has a lot more development to undergo before he can really, truly, be okay--or be okay enough to be with Bitty? To be honest, this story strikes me now as too long, but the parts in it that work are effective beyond that which fanfic demands. Meanwhile, this audio version only covers six chapters, but it’s so slick, so well-realized, so true to the story. Podfic as art.

my own dear friends | Ever since the day he met Jack Zimmermann, Shitty has seen it as his solemn duty to aggressively love him. (He just didn't know how aggressive the love Jack needed would be.) | There’s previous little Jack/Shitty in this fandom and a lot less quality BDSM,

the city’s ours until the fall | Kent has been, historically, good at this—forgetting about things until suddenly he doesn’t, and then it’s like the scar has never been there in the first place, just the wound. (Or: Kent Parson lets himself be happy, after all this time.) | I’ve never read this fic and I never will. I cannot imagine how, no matter how good it is, it could compare to the version that lives in my head, with Kent’s voice so totally realized. Vocal fry and pathos, a languid energy that I still think about when I think about Parse.

the model home | It’s going to be better, and that’s great, but sometimes Jack thinks, why can’t it be good right now? | j/k j/k, this is a self-reminder to finally one day review this.

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