#it's fascinating though like yugioh is one of the fandoms you can really see the evolution from the 2000s to the 2020s fandom culture like

[justapalspal]

THE REPORT

This accidentally became known as “The Report” in my head, so please have this bullet point list of notable and buck wild ygo fics and things I’ve compiled. @yuusaris pretty much challenged me without challenging me to think up some old fic things I’ve read and it turned into a labor of love about the many things I’ve found on my deep dives into old ygo fandom, as well as things I’ve been fond of for almost ten years. Then I had to show it to @ninjam117 and @millenniumringg as I wrote it.

So yeah *cracks knuckles* my time has come.

There’s the obvious mentions of old oof ygo fic tropes and brief descriptions of nsfw, so it’s gettin a #spicy and #spicy text tag for that (and also a read more tbh it’s pretty long). Also included is gender au and a brief mention of two fics with mpreg (in a tame way), the ygo 2000s suicide trope, the abuse once or twice, and a couple other things too elaborated under the read more. Tread carefully fam <3

I’ve gone across ffnet, AFF, ao3, mediaminer, and even the livejournal remnants, but haven’t had very much luck with the personal website side of fic and such. Most of those are lost to time, or only saved via patchy geocities mirrors or wayback machine snapshots. I do my deep dives for fun so you don’t have to, so let’s have a good time as we wonder at what the eng yugioh fandom has given us under the cut—some of it absurd, some of it endearing, and some of it very obviously oof.

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Again, warnings for discussion of the following: bits of nsfw, gender au, mpreg, 2000s ygo suicide tropes (but not Ryou), 2000s ygo abuse tropes, one mention of (incredibly distant) incest and one other throw away line about the subject, and a couple very brief references to ships of Bandit Keith and Pegasus with Ryou. There is also one mention of Yami B with Mai.

Now that makes this all seem terrible but actually a lot of it is just funny. Like, in the most absurd way even though there’s a lot of instances of oof. I’m describing a lot of fics I’ve read over my time in the ygo fandom and a lot more I’ve found on my deep dives into the wilds of ygo. I don’t remember many of the titles. I’m sure some of them (aside from the confirmed ones) have been deleted. I focused more on the early 2000s era and put a cut off somewhere around 2015, since that’s an era of ygo I find particularly fascinating. Many of these fics are genuinely funny, and actually quite pleasantly oof free (or very minimal oof).

Some things I remember seeing:

One fic where Ryou decided he wanted to kill Bakura because he’d like snapped but along the way he became some sort of floozy (referred to much more ehhh-ly in fic) and decided to make out with every other male character conceivable, all while going after Bakura. Bakura was terrified. I think this was yandere Ryou 

I think there was a fic that gave Isis a yami in the necklace, and for some reason she had red hair(?) and she wasn’t brought up until like, chapter something-teen? There was no build up at all to her, but I remember distinctly being able to tell the author had the best time writing her. She was in love with Shadi iirc

Update: So turns out these two were the same fic and I shouldn’t have doubted my memory and also there’s YAMI SHADI

The one fic on mediaminer where Bakura committed suicide (or tried to) instead of Ryou. It was because Ryou didn’t come home on time.

The one very well written spellbook tender fic in which there was a completely random no holds barred genderswap arc where Bakura became a redhead girl and went to prom or something with Ryou because Ryou’s dad was so happy he knew a “girl” (but also angry because Bakura was “living” with him and so I think like. Papa wanted Ryou to make “an honest woman” out of Bakura. He found clothes there and them in the same bed and that was sCaNdElOuS.)

The ygotas personalities for no conceivable reason out the wazoo. Of Elevators and Muses comes to mind but good gosh for all its weird time capsule moments that fic is still fondly latched into my memory. I read it a whole year after it initially finished. I vividly remembered the hotel room scene where Bakura gets freaking flustered over seeing Ryou without his fancypants piano performance shirt and Bakura just kept rationalizing it away. Kyoko is my dream oc child. Bakura was a nervous anxious wreck and his pissed off attitude about it is something I still ridiculously adore to this day. He missed when he tried to kiss Ryou. I’m so sad it got taken down.

I won’t even get into the ancient, ancient Bakura gets mpreg’d fic(s) I am Thinking About

Or the Ryou mpreg ones

Here’s the tame one it’s the one fic where Bakura got pregnant by accident because neither he nor Ryou knew sex ed and “did it both ways to be sure” after Bakura drank the magic pregnancy potion instead of Ryou because their hot chocolate got swapped. Ryou cheated on Bakura later because he felt bogged down by the baby. The baby was named Rain. Actually it may have been because they had a second daughter but it was because Bakura cheated on him with one of the Maliks (I think it was after feeling ignored)

Hentai or Chikai Malik or something. It was some sort of “pervert” but not exactly pervert word, I think? Or maybe to do with love. Malik gained another personality after the end of canon and it was because he was horny and pent up (and repressed)

The bait and switch “genderbend” Ryou gemshipping fic. It was gay all along, fellas

The one fic that did a gender au of Bakura instead of Ryou but like, in a well thought out way actually. I’d have a surprising amount of nickels for the amount of times I’ve seen fics doing gender au of Bakura and not Ryou, actually.

That one dedicated vex shipper that is like what, still periodically updating their wip after 10 years? Mad respect 

Actually their host/vexship fic still lives in my head rent free sometimes. It was very well written and I was quite invested and read it in one night. Man, it felt like a novel

The hostship/thiefship combo fic where they ended up having a foursome but it was a threesome body-wise

 “Kaiba genuinely falls for Anzu and tries to woo her but Anzu is just like ‘wtf I don’t believe you?? you can’t win me with money? prove it? be nice to my friends???’ and he’s actually the worst at human interaction” gosh I need to find that again 

“Can you have a romance OC?” actually like the most well written OFC/main cast member I’ve ever seen, and that was after reading my then-fave Dr Who x OFC fic

No, wait, there’s also the slow burn yami b/OFC (yami b/OFC/malik love triangle) fic up there with the OC who got thrown into the world of ygo. Surprising amount of “I woke up in ygo” before isekai, fun fic trope, genuinely ppl having a good time. Fond memories of that and I still wish she’d returned Ryou’s brief crush on her man, rip my guy there homie 👊😔

AFF had that one fic where Ryou wrote fanfic of himself and Bakura and it was actually well liked by the in-universe fic readers but then Bakura found it and Ryou was mortified (then the M rating kicked in). Somehow, the fact that many ppl wrote fanfic of them—which implied they were somehow known and possibly known as a show(?)—did not come up coherently once

Actually I think there were two fics where Ryou pretended to be a girl and Bakura fell for him. One of them was on AFF. Not a bait and switch, but I think some real big fantasy power dynamics were in there

The Bandit Keith x Ryou fic where he thought Ryou was a girl and got pissed he wasn’t and then Yami B came out of the Ring and zapped him or something for being a dick and a creep

There is a surprising amount of fics where Bandit Keith meets up with Ryou somehow under the castle (at least three, maybe four)

Possessive and All That Glitters are my two all time fave ffnet only angstshipping fics actually because Ryou is like incredible in there, incredibly creepy and ic, I will take no substitutes, I will love no other, and this was in the ygo year of our lord 2012!!

The Incarnation of Zorc is gonna happen and oh boy Bakura is gonna make sure it happens (with mpreg and Ryou) like how is this genuinely the funniest 600 word drabble about Cthulhu horror mpreg I’ve ever read

AFF had a fic where Bakura knew Ryou was abusing him but stayed because he “knew he could handle him” and it made him love the fuck out of Ryou. Bakura did give him shit back with the silent treatment but it was pretty obvious he was getting the kermuppence kicked out of him and like, staying delusional about it?? Ryou was 100% terrible and physically violent, they weren't even dating(?), wtf lmao FHDJFHFJ

Then there was the AFF Ryou drugs fic where he put out cigarettes or joints or something on yami b’s hands while in the bathtub

Need I even go into the AFF/mediaminer fic where Bakura turned out to be Ryou’s great great great something great grandfather and they angsted about it being incest for like one chapter but that’s it? The author is genuinely interesting, I just found that a weird plot point to introduce and then smooth over like that without any lasting impact LMDJFJFJ

Modern day yami b gets a tan and that’s how he becomes tkb

Actually these all three are the same fic like the whole concept of a majority of the fic being spent on Ryou working up to “ok I’m almost ready to top you Bakura I know you’ve been begging don’t worry sweetie :)” in 2007-2009 of all times is WILD

Mad props to the dedication of Faust going through three iterations of the fic since the 2000s and finally getting completed a year or two ago like dang, that fact alone is unique as it is astounding, MAD respect, I gotta finish that one

Origins of Symmetry did it too

Ryuujitsu ily

The one double gender au where fem!Bakura was fem!Ryou’s sugar mama

There’s this other AFF one I’m distinctly remembering but the only part I remember is that Ryou gets his multiple boyfriends and he and two of them kiss each other at the same time, all three on the lips. I don’t think I’ve seen a kiss written like that since

There was one fic where Bakura basically played a long con of homophobic chicken for money and then Ryou found out and straight up killed him

The one fic where Bakura had to be the role model for Yami and say “hey, look at the good relationship I have with my light, look what you did to yours, look at him, you gave him depression” because tendies was the alpha couple and Yugi just wanted to die. Ryou’s urge to die got fixed by love like seven chapters in. Meanwhile Kaiba and Jou were stuck in super detention which was basically a whole week of detention straight, yet kept beating the shit out of each other (Jou fell in love with him in detention)

I’m not even gonna go into the throuple Amane one I read from the 2000s a few days ago (is it still incest if it’s not?) (no, it is not the new one that went up on ao3 dndndnbs)

The one where Ryou steals Bakura’s body after Bakura visits his hubby’s grave and befriends the spooky ghost Ryou there too much. It’s horror, it’s horrific, it’s well written, I’m never gonna read it again 😂😂😂

I might actually be having some nickels lining up for the number of fics that tackle “one day Ryou will top Bakura (but not today)”

I have no idea why at least two Pegasus x Ryou fics exist across multiple platforms that I know of, but if I had two nickels

as you can see, I would have a lot of nickels

Hey has anyone read Cadeau. It ripped me to pieces and it’s pretty heavy but also it just. It just. It. 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 I have never had a 2003 yugioh fic go as hard at me as this open ended “did Bakura fuck up” fanfic did, oh gee, oh gee, oh man

A surprising amount of instances of people trying to write fics titled “Ba-Ku-Ra!” (or some variation)

Ryou got banged by a knife at least twice on AFF (luckily the handle side)

An interesting character sketch of Ryou pondering the emotional failing of his and Honda’s college relationship (because he feels stifled by him)

Why are the Ishtars so often the providers of magic potions and spells and plot convenience things and stuff. Is it because they’re mysterious or something 

Actually there’s a surprising amount of like off to the side tendershipping with Ryou and his top/versatile tender shenanigans over the years, it really does just feel like it got drowned out by the Abusive Seme Bakura trope and Ryou Flanderization prior to like ~2015

There were two fics that pondered the question of “what if Ryou got the ability to keep Bakura out of his body during the canon storyline” that got published around the same time, but one ended in romance while the other ended in pretty obvious “this was a fucked up unhealthy relationship.” I remember being disappointed back then that they didn’t both end romantically but honestly looking back on them now it’s an interesting like, point of discussion for me, because the intent of the non romantic one was definitely “here is a supremely unhealthy dynamic,” yet somehow at the time I wanted them to end the same.

yes the first one is persistent shadow anyone who wants tendies content (with y’know the lemon/lime type stuff) should read it please go read it if you haven’t

The love potion one was quite funny actually. Ryou got exposed to one and the entire cast of ygo (and domino city) were all trying to get with him but like romantically. Turned out Bakura was the only one who wasn’t actually affected by it because he loved Ryou before the potion

Man I miss Philophobic. OCD Paralegal Bakura and Weirdo Quiet Malik was intriguing. I was ecstatic when Ryou showed up in like chapter 15/16. Little Bro Ryou. Baku Bros and Dead Amane. Bakura literally had the first name McJagger.

There’s the one old ao3 fic I’m remembering now that was tornship and Bakura and Ryou proposed together because they had the same body and it was during a day long ice skating date. I think it’s gone forever fellas ;;

The Kim Possible/Tendershipping + etcetera mega crossover, I’m so glad that author is living their best life

I took two steps in to an AFF fic where Bakura got kidnapped to be Ryou’s new present by Ryou’s dad and once I hit “won’t you give me some of your milk” I walked directly back out of there

Sometimes I still think about Opal, where Ryou betrays the human race to go off and live with his giant alien boyfriend who has claws and thus cannot perform fingering or anal prep, which Ryou also apparently can’t perform. It is a fond memory of a wacky sci-fi au (but it was definitely going for dramatic) (and tendies)

Bakura x Yami and one of them was the EMT but they were the only two ones from ygo canon in there and it was a thriller and every other character was Frickin’ American, I kid you not 😂😂

The hostship one where Ryou found a magic diary journal and ended up writing non-erotic friend fiction by accident (the first time) and got anxious when Anzu started acting out his crush writing iirc

Anyone remember those “the cast watches YGOTAS” fics. One of them had Ryou getting upset and hurt by the side character jokes ;^;

If you ever think everything hasn’t been shipped, I read an old fic where Yami Bakura didn’t want to tell Mai they were lovers in the past and so he just angsted pissedly about it instead while watching her from like across the park idk (but I think she was interested in the memory or him somehow still anyhow, IDK LMAO)

That one long Bakura and Jou fic. I thought it was over 700k words but I checked and it’s over 998k. My gosh, the absolute dedication

IT UPDATED LAST MONTH???!?!

I need to end with a banger, but all I can remember is yugioh had an extensive crossover with death note on ffnet where they introduced the concept of light magic, everyone summoned their own monsters irl, and Yami Bakura had his purple eyes, which I thought was so beautiful and aesthetically pleasing 

There was one early early early fic somewhere way in the beginnings of the ffnet archive with Bakura and Ryou. Bakura was insecure and angsting—in bed—about Ryou and their loving relationship—in the same bed as Ryou—and all I can remember thinking about it while reading it is “wow, it feels like this was written before the Tendies Abuse dynamic even solidified into fanon canon.”

One time back before the Yahoo Groups shut down I ran across a Yami and Bakura fic from like 2003-2004(?) that just had them chilling without any trouble going on, and I can’t believe that that of all things surprised me by just existing

Then there was the Yami/Bakura one where Bakura was suicidal yet there was no way to read it because the author erased almost all of the previous chapters when they decided to rewrite it. When you go onto the wayback machine with the link to that fic you can see everything the author took down. This is the case for a surprising amount of old, old ygo fic

I remember a tender fic that also had this as the case for it (I think the author said something about not wanting to bother the people who had finished reading the story ages ago)

Actually. The gigantic, gigantic ripped file archive of ffnet might be the most astounding thing to end this at. Some guy took a huge bot program or script program crawler thing to the entirety of ffnet and spent possibly 2-3 years downloading everything from it. All the fanfic. Everything public at the time. The ygo archive stops around 2015. This is theorized to be the entire reason that ffnet switched to making it impossible to copy paste fic from the desktop site. Mobile, perplexingly, is still entirely copy paste block free 

Also, mediaminer still exists. It just has none of the art

This in no way represents everything out there, but man does it make for a fun list. The eng yugioh fandom is enthralling to scour through. All this fandom archeology and the deep dives into yugioh history are my passion 🐸 

Hope I could entertain ✨✨✨

#honestly I could probably write fandom essays at this point #it has hit me that maybe not everybody has done the same extensive searching I have #it's fascinating though like yugioh is one of the fandoms you can really see the evolution from the 2000s to the 2020s fandom culture like #uninterrupted for the most part #very fascinating #incredibly fascinating #spicy #spicy text #head the warnings please #the latest fixation project LMAO #The Report #ramble #fandom archeology #my fandom archeology #i'm very fond of the gems in old ygo fandom #this got to be around 3.3k words #ghhhg #yugioh

[likeabxrdinflight]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

stole this from @soozencreates​ because I’m bored lol

How many works do you have on AO3?

11

What's your total AO3 word count?

87,734

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

atla/lok, she-ra, the owl house, steven universe, tangled/rapunzel’s tangled adventure, once upon a time, and harry potter. 

this isn’t the sum total of my fanfic writing experience though, just what’s on ao3 currently. a lot of my older stuff was lost when I deleted my first ff.net account. I regret that decision always.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The Light Behind Your Eyes (395), Requiem for a Witch (273), Something About Ember Island (272), Unmasked (161), and Albus Dumbledore and the Boy Who Lived (97)

Yeah no real surprises there, The Owl House is popular right now.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

I respond to most of them, especially just after a fic has been posted. I just think it’s polite. But sometimes if a comment comes in long after the post date, I might forget to respond...or else I just haven’t checked my account in a while. 

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

Hmm...Unmasked has a pretty angsty ending, but idk how many people would consider that like...sad per se, considering it’s a Shadow Weaver think piece. Broken Crowns and Crumbling Thrones also has a pretty bittersweet ending, but it’s meant to be hopeful too, so...I think I’ll give it to Unmasked.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

Mother, without a doubt.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you've written?

Nope. Not really my thing.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

I actually have not, at least not on ao3. I’m not even sure I ever got serious hate, even when I was on ff.net...if I did I don’t remember it lol. Though there’s a project I’m working on that, if I decide to publish it, might get me some hate comments in future. If it does it’ll be from people deliberately misrepresenting the work, but eh, that’s the internet for you. We’ll see if I go through it.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Uh...I mean I wrote a brief moment in Something About Ember Island, but it wasn’t like...full on smut. It’s definitely not my forte, I don’t write a ton of romance. 

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I’m aware of.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not. Though I’d be happy to attempt a Spanish translation if anyone ever wanted that. I could use the practice honestly.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but I did run a roleplay blog for five years, which is kind of the same thing. One of my old friends and I have discussed turning some of those threads into a co-written fic, but we haven’t actually done it yet because we’re both pretty busy.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

...well, it’s not actually for any of the fandoms I’ve written for, and it’s not from a show I’ve fixated on in a long time, but the ultimate OTP for me has always been and will always be Puzzleshipping from Yugioh. This baby can fit so much into it- you’ve got the darker season 0/early manga vibes, you’ve got your healthier dynamic from the second anime/later manga chapters, you have the inherent angst of one of them being the soul of a dead Pharaoh, it’s got the feels, the drama, the intense devotion to each other, and it’s gay as shit. It was also one of the first queer pairings I was ever into. 

I was fascinated with these two from the time I was like, 12, and at the time I wouldn’t have known to ship them romantically because I didn’t know gay people existed, but I definitely like...I was obsessed with their relationship. I used to rent the DVD copy of the Yugi vs Pegasus episodes from Blockbuster like all the time and just watch that shit on repeat because man the puzzleship vibes in those episodes were just. on point. I watched the original Japanese episodes on youtube with the shitty Hong Kong subs and tried to decipher what was going on, because it was so different from the dumbed down English version. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I’ve re-watched the stupid fuckin Doma arc just for the angsty moments. Do you know how many episodes of children’s card games I put up with for these two. do you. do you know.

But it’s the childhood dream ship and I will never love another pairing quite like I love them.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

...uh...there’s several...but honestly Albus Dumbledore and the Boy Who Lived might be the biggest regret, since I actually started publishing that one and I was pretty happy with the work I was doing. I thought it would be an easy project, since I wasn’t really going off book much, just looking at the story from Dumbledore’s perspective, but then Rowling had to go and open her mouth and ruin everything. Honestly I haven’t wanted to engage with Harry Potter since she published her transphobic manifesto- I still get a sour taste in my mouth even thinking about it these days. But maybe someday the sting of that betrayal will lessen, and I’ll be able to engage with her work again. Right now it still feels too soon, and I don’t really want to do too much with the Harry Potter fandom while she’s actively using her fortune to advocate for transphobic legislation in the UK. It just...feels wrong. And I’m not saying people can’t still engage with Harry Potter in some forms, I just...can’t make myself do it. Not yet. Probably not for a while.

please don’t give her money tho

What are your writing strengths?

Raw emotion, character introspection, and I think I’m pretty good at dialogue. Also crying moms. I write a lot of sad moms...we’re not unpacking that.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Action, actual plot that isn’t character or relationship building. 

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Sure? I’ve used Spanish in my Owl House fics. I don’t think it should go overboard, and I don’t love when people randomly insert Japanese words into anime fanfics, but when a character speaks a second language, it makes perfect sense to sometimes use that language.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

First on ao3, or...? Because first ever was Yugioh (in my 6th grade binder during classes lol), first published on ff.net was Harry Potter, and first on ao3 was...also Harry Potter.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

Ooh...probably Something About Ember Island. I’m pretty proud of what I did with the Gaang kids in that one. Plus I actually finished a multichapter fic, which is rare for me. 

Tagging: Eh...

#I don't know why that 11 is so huge up there #nor do I know how to fix it...

[punkinroses]

B, L, M, N, S, T for the fanfic ask game

FanFic Ask Game

Thank you so much for the questions!

B: Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

So I think a lot more of my more original projects do, more so than my fanfics. Like there might be a couple things I think I’ll end up drawing from, mostly because I think there’s a lot of raw stuff to draw from when you look from experiences of yourself and the world around you. But mostly it’s more or less that the projects my friends and I are making to be part of our production company really, really draw from a lot of my own inner things, especially one I’ve been wanting to write for the last year or so.

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

I feel like it kind of depends. I also tend to write everything in chunks, and take breaks, rather than just sit down and crank everything out. When I go in to write another chunk, I’ll kinda just look over what I have written before, sometimes read it out loud (especially to Nat) and then edit where things need to be fixed. So, typically, it just depends on how many chunks I end up writing before posting something.

M: Got any premises on the back burner that you’d care to share?

There’s been a few. There’s a couple YuGiOh fics I wanna write, one about an OC. There’s some ideas I’ve had to explore like what life would be like for Noah if he was able to escape the VR world, things about Mai’s life and her trying to rebuild herself and new ideas about her backstory (including a half sister she tries to reconnect with who has a young daughter, and then that sister encourages her to finally go after Joey, meanwhile she meets a certain former DOMA member...it’s something I’ve been cooking up for a while), about Yugi and the others and life after DSOD...more explanations about what the actual FUCK was up with the Plana and that fucking 8th Millennium Item HELLO TAKAHASHI--

With BNHA, Nana’s story isn’t the only one I’m writing. I’m planning on writing and have gotten pieces written of the prequel story focusing on Allison and Toshi’s college days and their backstories, but will probably post that after a certain point in the story arc. There’s one I wanna do that’s Aizawa centric and him also getting a family bc GODDAMNIT LET THAT MAN BE A HUSBAND AND A FATHER P L EA SE. And possibly one about a villain OC that I feature that basically her Quirk turns her into a big fuck you demon.

I actually just had an idea I shared with my friend Kyler about how I think the anime should handle Galar now that Ash finally got his championship and we’ve been debating if the show would focus on him now or nah, and I think I have a really good idea in the works. Also maybe something focusing on the Mystery Dungeon ideas.

Digimon’s another one that I’ve been thinking about a lot more lately. I have an idea that was kinda fueled by things happening in my life right now (more or less frustration with something and that lead to me thinking up some things that would be cool).

Uhhhh what else what else...shit y’all I have a ton. All in the DC, SU, FE3H, hell Scooby Doo -- just all sorts of shit, guys!

N: Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

...all of my fics because I’m lazy.

(Though, for real, there is one that I’m wanting to see p bad and that’s like if Spinnel would have been part of the Crystal Gems. I think that would be a really interesting story. If anyone’s got links, p l e a s e hit me up.)

S: Any fandom tropes you can’t resist?

IDK if it’s a trope, but if anyone has Ghost Hunting AUs, hit me up, I live for that shit. I just found out Did You Just Punch Out Cthulu is a tv trope, and I want more fics like that. Please. That’s my new favorite trope of all time.

I’m a sucker for fake dating aus idk why. And like any future fics/next gen stuff bc I think it’s fascinating how people think different characters would grow up and what their kids would be like. Mostly I just like...read whatever looks like it catches my eye? I’m not really like picky picky and I can’t resist most things okay.

T: Any fandom tropes you can’t stand?

There’s like....none that I can’t stand, unless you go back to 2000s fanfiction where we all hated girl characters for getting in the way of our yaoi ships. We all did it. I’m tired and frustrated. It was a trope it just. Was everywhere.

Honestly the one that I don’t really like...get. Or really enjoy all that much ,even though they’re everywhere, is coffee shop aus. Not really my cup of tea. I like that they can be like full of variety and stuff but. Eh?

#ffs kenzie #my writing #Anonymous

[ladytemeraire]

Random question: I know you like Yugioh and Sailor Moon... do you like any other anime? What fandoms would you consider yourself active in now? Have you had any fandoms that you were really into a few years ago, and have slowly drifted out of?

(N.B.: This got way out of hand and I apologize in advance for the length of this reply. Also, holy parenthetical statements, Batman.)

Oh man, do I ever! There’s the entire rest of the Yugioh franchise, for starters, and while the original (DM) still has the strongest hold on my heart and the characters I hold dearest, I’ve yet to really dislike any of the sequel series. (I’m slowly working my way through the franchise; at the moment I’ve watched roughly half of the six existing series - all of GX, most of Zexal when it was airing, and I’m partway through 5Ds.) I also adore Fullmetal Alchemist (both the 2003 series and Brotherhood), Revolutionary Girl Utena, and Escaflowne. And of course literally everything from Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli is a winner from my perspective. I have an ever-growing list of shows that I want to watch at some point; I got through the first season of Haikyuu! and loved it (volleyball feeeeels) but haven’t finished it yet, and I keep meaning to watch Yuri on Ice but just can’t find or make the time to devote to watching it. Also I should probably finish Gundam SEED one of these days.

There’s also some anime that I personally like but I generally don’t recommend to people for one reason or another. (Utena is actually one of these, just because the way the themes are addressed gets fairly intense in places; it’s a deconstruction of fairytales and gender roles and it gets rather heavy and dark at several points.) I personally really enjoyed Kill la Kill even in all its over-the-top absurdity, and I thought Puella Magi Madoka Magica was a fascinating examination and deconstruction of the magical girl genre, but I would absolutely not recommend them to people blindly, albeit for different reasons. And if we’re being perfectly honest, an enormous part of my enjoyment of those two series is due to the absolute killer soundtracks. I will put up with a lot from any given movie or show, anime or otherwise, if it has a good soundtrack, and both KLK and Madoka are top-notch in that regard. Hit me up if you want song examples, I will happily talk about the soundtracks without reservation.

(Unpopular opinion: while I understand how influential Evangelion was to anime in general and shonen/mecha anime in particular, I think it’s incredibly overhyped and not nearly as ~deep~ as some people seem to think, and the series getting rehashed every few years is kind of obnoxious. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ )

Fandom is... kind of a weird bird for me, in terms of how I approach it and feel about it. I get overwhelmed in large groups even online, so even if I’m “active” in a fandom I tend to just stick to a small group of people I’m friends with. (This is not helped by the fact that I tend to lurk on social media rather than put myself out there, so getting into a fandom in the first place can be a struggle for me.) I also had a rather sheltered upbringing in a lot of ways, especially when it came to the internet, so there were a lot of things I absolutely loved but never even knew that fandom was a possibility. Like, I practically grew up on the Star Wars Legends EU books, but it never even occurred to me that there might be other fans out there to talk about it with. And some things like Harry Potter that were a cornerstone of so many people’s childhoods, I was never allowed to read, so I came to those fandoms very late and I still feel like I’m playing catch-up in a lot of ways.

(It... didn’t help that I was bullied heavily for my interests when I was young, so I tend to keep them to myself even now.)

There are also some series that I know there has to be a fandom of, but I’ve never felt the need to seek them out for some reason. The Temeraire series was one of these - I adore the books but I just never felt the drive to seek out fic or fandom for it, for whatever reason, even though I love seeing the occasional artwork that I run across now and again. I’m just mostly content with the source material; I don’t begrudge the fandom at all, but I’ve never felt a pull to find or create material to fill in the gaps in that series.

Also, especially in “younger” fandoms, there’s the fact that some people are dicks about things like spoilers and letting people have their own ideas and headcanons, and the fact that every so often a fandom will latch on en masse to an idea or interpretation of a character that drives me absolutely bonkers. (Meaning either the character or the interpretation of them.) I’m not going to try and play fandom police or tell people what they can and can’t like, I’ll just disengage and lurk and keep to my own circles, but if it’s particularly widespread it can really sour me on talking about the series/material with other people.

And when it’s a fandom for a “live”/ongoing thing like, say, Star Wars Rebels, I’ve found that participating in discussions about upcoming material actually really sets off my anxiety for some reason. Not that I think speculating will get anyone in legal trouble or anything, I just... especially in a series where I get really attached to the characters, I almost want to let it end before I watch it, so I can burn through it at my own pace and don’t have the ongoing pressure of trying to figure out what will happen next, or I don’t get attached to a potential plot idea that doesn’t happen in canon. (The last few episodes leading up to the Rebels season 3 finale were really, really bad for me in this regard. There was at least one character that the writers could quite easily have killed off without it being a poor narrative decision, and being on tenterhooks over the course of about a month and literally up until the last few minutes of the final episode was extremely stressful for me. And if I’m being honest I’m really not looking forward to going through that again with the final season.)

ANYWAY. *casually shoves neuroses under the rug*

Right now I’d say I’m most active in the YGO and Star Wars fandoms. (Funnily enough, they’re both massive and ever-expanding franchises, which makes it easy to find a niche that suits you well.) Even in those it’s still the same kind of thing - I tend to lurk and just appreciate what others put out there until I work up the courage to make a friend or two (hi Skuun, hi Kinta, hi Evie, hi Caz, love y’all really hyped for the Good Omens adaptation that’s coming up, because I'm hoping it’ll lead to more stuff and more people in that fandom.

I was really into the Hetalia fandom back in its heyday on LiveJournal - the fandom was honestly more of a draw for me than the series proper. The source material is... rather silly, and a little cringey at times especially in the early days, but it’s a fertile playground, and the fandom was crammed to the gills with some of the most talented and brilliant people I’ve ever “met”. So it was really fun, in the long stretches of time between strips being uploaded/translated, to poke at the Hetalia ‘verse with other people and discuss interpretations and what-ifs. We had all of history to play with, after all, so there was a lot of untouched material up for grabs. It was also the only fandom I’ve ever put actual fic(s) for online, other than my rambling tag novels. That one I drifted away from for a combination of reasons - college and then my job eating up my time, the slow death of LiveJournal, plus I seem to recall there was some fandom wank that made me stay away from it for a while (unsurprising given the average age and maturity level of the fandom, but I don’t remember specifics at this point). I also fell away from Shingeki no Kyojin/Attack on Titan a while ago, but that was more due to the source material pissing me off than anything else.

Wow, this ended up being a really thought-provoking ask! Thank you for dropping it in my inbox, and for letting me ramble for a while. =)

#replies #craftingandfandom #about the author #fandom #suddenly fandom feels

[beneaththetangles]

Q&A with Our New Staff: Josh, sleepminusminus, Joseph, and Paris!

Over the last couple of months, we’ve brought in four new staff members to join our ministry. A couple of them have been running our social media accounts for weeks now, so you may have been reading their work without even noticing a change, while the remaining two are brand, brand new!

With this being our 10th anniversary year, it felt very appropriate to throw back, as we’ve done all year, and introduce you to them in the way we once did: through a Q&A! So here we go—introducing Paris, who will be covering conventions and doing cosplay content for us; sleepminusminus, one of our writers, who just dropped a guest post for us last week (like I said, brand new); Josh, who helps run our Twitter account and also contributes to the blog; and Joseph, our Instagram admin and the podcast team’s video editor.

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Question 1: How did you become associated with Beneath the Tangles?

Paris: Funny enough, Charles found me on my personal Instagram—not my cosplay Instagram! He saw that I went to Dallas Theological Seminary and wanted to recruit me onto the team, but at the time I was still in school and an active member of of another group, so I didn’t have time to make any commitments. Now I’m graduated and excited to be a part of the team!

sleepminusminus: It’s been so long… I must have looked something up about Christianity and anime and found BTT in the results. I’ve kept up with the blog on and off ever since.

Josh: Charles and I were `both members of the Christian Anime Alliance forums. Years later, when I started up my own blog, Charles was so welcoming and so encouraging. A true inspiration. Fast-forward a couple months and I’m coming off a really, REALLY stressful time due to a blog article I wrote that was not received well by some. Charles helped me out of that dark time and when all was said and done and my brain was no longer a quivering mass of goo, he asked if I would like to join BTT. I had to think and pray about it for a while before I said yes and, well, here I am.

Joseph: I met Charles in college and we went to the same church for some time. I always thought it was cool how he used something as secular as anime to evangelize, but it didn’t cross my mind that I could do the same thing until I saw some of my classmates working for BTT too. Then after I graduated, I asked if I could join and here I am.

Question 2: How did you become an anime fan?

Paris: I guess I was kind of born into becoming an anime fan—being half Asian. On my birthday each year, my uncles would take my brother and I to this anime store back when VHS was still a thing, and we could rent as many anime VHS tapes as we wanted! Some of my first anime included Ranma ½, Kodocha, and Yu Yu Hakusho (we weren’t censored as children). I related so much to Sana Kurata that I literally wanted to change my name to Sana, haha! (I think I still do relate to her lol)

sleepminusminus: At first, Youtube clips of visual novels served as the gateway drug into a deeper obsession with anime. After some personal struggles with pornography, I took a break from anime for around a year. When that year ended, some close friends started watching Nagi no Asukara and invited me to watch along. I’ve been riding the slice-of-life train ever since.

Josh: Okay, first of all, Paris is awesome because I have heard very few people talk about Kodocha and the fact that was one of his first is amazing. Second, SleepMinusMinus is awesome because…well…Nagi no Asukara is awesome, and I also am a happy passenger on the Slice-of-Life train. But I digress. My anime switches were flipped one night in around 2002-2003. I was up late and I was channel surfing. I came across this show that ended up being Yu Yu Hakusho. It was so cool as I had never seen anything like it before! Then…then Cowboy Bebop came along and that’s when I realized there was this whole bigger, wider world of those funny Japanese cartoons than Digimon, Pokemon and Monster Rancher. I came back the following Saturday, and the Saturday after that. Before I knew it, I was writing fanfics and joining online forums. Then I was buying DVD’s and Newtype USA magazines. Next thing I knew I was going to cons and meeting other fans. My ascendance into the world of anime has been quick and amazing.

Joseph: I grew up watching all of the classic kid’s shows like Pokemon and Yugioh with my brother. At night, I remember we would always be excited to watch Inuyasha because of how much more actiony it was compared to American cartoons. I don’t think I realized that I was watching anime until in middle school though, when one of my friends asked me if I watch anime, citing Inuyasha as an example. Then he recommended I watch Code Geass and after I watched that, I realized that there was more to anime than just really cool fight scenes and have been watching since.

YYH is an important starting anime for Paris and Josh (art by つ ゆ / reprinted w/permission)

Question 3: How would you describe your place in the fandom?

Paris: I think my place in the fandom would be a cosplay enthusiast and entertainer. I love Instagram and Tik Tok right now but I’m also hoping to start doing Visual Novel walk throughs on Twitch.

sleepminusminus: In public, I’ve mastered the art of the lurker, only peeking out to mark my completed shows on AniList. Most of the time, though, I watch anime with IRL friends and make fun of bad CG. I also spend excessive hours on rhythm games while procrastinating work.

Josh: I think my place in the anime fandom right now is as a mature anime consumer who has just enough writing talent to put his opinions, thoughts and ideas to a word document or in a 240 character tweet and have it make some kind of sense.

Joseph: I don’t really take part in online discussions, but I know most of what they talk about and the references usually (even the memes). I also try to keep up with the actual industry itself too, like what studios are up to or what the directors are doing. Fandom wise, if anyone mentions the Monogatari series, be ready to listen to me rant for an hour on how it’s a masterpiece.

Question 4: What anime or manga are you excited about these days?

Paris: Right now I’m most obsessed with Re: Zero and My Hero Academia.

sleepminusminus: Kyoto Animation has been consistently good recently. I just finished the Haruhi series and I’m thinking about picking up Lucky Star (but only for the Haruhi references). Beyond that, I’m hoping the new Higurashi remake is better than the original. Oh, and the new Made in Abyss movie had better not disappoint.

Josh: Of course, I’m beyond excited to see where Digimon Adventure (2020) is going to go. It’s been a fascinating watch so far. Seeing these characters who I know but don’t know has been a real prodigious experience. It does feel like we’re moving pretty fast though. Sticking with Digimon, I’m also excited to FINALLY get to see Digimon Adventure Last Evolution Kizuna. I grew up with the Adventure ‘99 crew, and knowing this is their final curtain call is bittersweet, but I’m interested to see how this whole thing plays out. Getting away from Digimon, I’m really excited to see the Stone Wars arc of Dr. Stone. I’m completely caught up with the manga so I know what’s to come, but I still want to see it play out in anime form.

Joseph: I’m really excited for the new Maeda Jun original next season: The Day I Became a God. Re:Zero has got me on edge every week and probably will until next year. The Violet Evergarden movie was just released in Japan and hopefully it finds its way here soon. Oh and Haruhi is back in print with the next light novel coming out soon, so that’s been a long time coming.

Season two of Re:ZERO has us all excited (art by 茕榕 / reprinted w/permission)

Question 5: QUICK FIVE

Best live action anime adaptation?

Paris: Ghost in the Shell sleepminusminus: I’ve only watched Detective Pikachu… Josh: Death Note (2006). Chairman Kaga is Light’s Daddy. Joseph: Alita: Battle Angel

Digimon or Pokémon?

Paris: Pokémon sleepminusminus: Pokémon Josh: Digimon Joseph: Pokemon

My first cosplay was…

Paris: Ken Kaneki from Tokyo Ghoul! I was really into Facepaint and FX makeup in High School so I literally just painted the mask onto my face. sleepminusminus: Lurkers don’t cosplay Josh: My first cosplay was supposed to be Izzy from Digmon at MechaCon this year, but COVID happened and… Joseph: Kagamine Len from Vocaloid. I like make easy and not hot outfits to wear at cons.

If I could meet one person in the anime industry, it would be…

Paris: Laura Bailey! She’s my favorite voice actress. sleepminusminus: Honobu Yonezawa, the author of the Hyouka novels Josh: Amanda Winn-Lee. I’ve interacted a lot with her on Twitter and she’s so nice. Joseph: Yamada Naoko, director for A Silent Voice and K-On! The Movie.

This anime character would be my best friend:

Paris: Tomo Takino from Azumanga Daioh sleepminusminus: Kyon from Haruhi, for his continual complaints and stream of grandiose allusions Josh: Mimi from Digimon Adventure. She’s an awesome character that needs a good friend to tell her to “hush” whenever she goes ditzy. Joseph: Chitanda Eru from Hyouka because she always wants to do something

Our staff is curious—at least sleepminusminus and Joseph are! (art by ちゅんころもち / reprinted w/permission)

All-time anime crush?

Paris: Kyo from Fruits Basket. For some reason, I always end up loving the angry boys… sleepminusminus: Mayaka Ibara, our tsundere queen from Hyouka Josh: Hinata from Naruto. How can you NOT like that lavender-eyed cutie? Joseph: Holo from Spice and Wolf because of course she is.

Favorite food to eat while watching anime:

Paris: Pho Tai w/ an order of eggrolls and Thai Tea sleepminusminus: Instant ramen (no crumbs!) Josh: Nice cold Muscadine grapes. Joseph: Fruit Basket (Preferably strawberries)

An anime that more people need to watch:

Paris: Kodocha; the manga is good too! sleepminusminus: Hyouka (notice a theme yet?) Josh: Planetes. It’s a great space slice-of-life show that gets little to no love. Joseph: A Place Further than the Universe. Very well rated but I don’t think enough people watch it because of its silly premise.

An anime that is way overrated:

Paris: DANGANRONPA. It’s horrible. Change my mind. Other than the Fate series, I haven’t had much luck with Visual Novel anime adaptations— (let’s not talk about School Days) sleepminusminus: Madoka Magica: watch Steins;Gate instead Josh: My Hero Academia. Come on guys, it’s the same old comic book superhero “I wanna be the strongest ______ ever!” shounen show we’ve seen over and over again. Joseph: One Punch Man. The title tells you what the show is going to be about you guys.

Poor Madoka… (art by 薯子Imoko / artist allows reprints)

Do you like gore / dark anime?

Paris: yes. It’s my favorite. sleepminusminus: Sure Josh: Depends on my mood, but not really. Joseph: Gore for the sake of gore (Another), not really. But everything else I can enjoy!

Shonen or slice of life?

Paris: Shonen sleepminusminus: Slice-of-life Josh: Slice-Of-Life all day everyday. Joseph: Slice of life

Best Ghibli movie:

Paris: Spirited Away sleepminusminus: None yet… recommendations please Josh: Ponyo. It’s just so freaking adorable. Joseph: Princess Mononoke

Ever been to Japan?

Paris: I was supposed to go this Summer, but Covid… sleepminusminus: No Josh: HAHAHAHAHA…on my salary? Heck no! Joseph: Yes two times now!

Question 6: Where can our readers find you other than here on the blog?

Paris: Instagram / Tik Tok / Twitch / Facebook / YouTube: Pariscosplays (in progress) / Email sleepminusminus: You can find me on Twitter. If you’re fortunate, you might catch a tweet once a year. Josh: Blog / Twitter – Heads up on my Twitter, I tend to get very political and I sometimes go off on tangents. I give fair warning for both. But overall, I’m pretty chill! I do have an Instagram but I don’t update it too often, and I do have a Facebook, but I keep it on lockdown. Sorry! Joseph: I don’t really use any other social media actively

#Anime #Interviews #Manga #Beneath the Tangles #Visual Novels #Video Games #Articles #Author: TWWK #Author: Pariscosplays #Author: The Cajun Samurai #Author: sleepminusminus #Author: Joseph