#it's just that as usual! popular fanon and fandom around a ship is what has completely deterred me from any sense of enjoyment of it

[kaladinkholins]

Very interesting to me that a certain subset of the BES fandom's favourite iterations of Mizu and Akemi are seemingly rooted in the facades they have projected towards the world, and are not accurate representations of their true selves.

And I see this is especially the case with Mizu, where fanon likes to paint her as this dominant, hyper-masculine, smirking Cool GuyTM who's going to give you her strap. And this idea of Mizu is often based on the image of her wearing her glasses, and optionally, with her cloak and big, wide-brimmed kasa.

And what's interesting about this, to me, is that fanon is seemingly falling for her deliberate disguise. Because the glasses (with the optional combination of cloak and hat) represent Mizu's suppression of her true self. She is playing a role.

Take this scene of Mizu in the brothel in Episode 4 for example. Here, not only is Mizu wearing her glasses to symbolise the mask she is wearing, but she is purposely acting like some suave and cocky gentleman, intimidating, calm, in control. Her voice is even deeper than usual, like what we hear in her first scene while facing off with Hachiman the Flesh-Trader in Episode 1.

This act that Mizu puts on is an embodiment of masculine showboating, which is highly effective against weak and insecure men like Hachi, but also against women like those who tried to seduce her at the Shindo House.

And that brings me to how Mizu's mask is actually a direct parallel to Akemi's mask in this very same scene.

Here, Akemi is also putting up an act, playing up her naivety and demure girlishness, using her high-pitched lilted voice, complimenting Mizu and trying to make small talk, all so she can seduce and lure Mizu in to drink the drugged cup of sake.

So what I find so interesting and funny about this scene, characters within it, and the subsequent fandom interpretations of both, is that everyone seems to literally be falling for the mask that Mizu and Akemi are putting up to conceal their identities, guard themselves from the world, and get what they want.

It's also a little frustrating because the fanon seems to twist what actually makes Mizu and Akemi's dynamic so interesting by flattening it completely. Because both here and throughout the story, Mizu and Akemi's entire relationship and treatment of each other is solely built off of masks, assumptions, and misconceptions.

Akemi believes Mizu is a selfish, cocky male samurai who destroyed her ex-fiance's career and life, and who abandoned her to let her get dragged away by her father's guards and forcibly married off to a man she didn't know. on the other hand, Mizu believes Akemi is bratty, naive princess who constantly needs saving and who can't make her own decisions.

These misconceptions are even evident in the framing of their first impressions of each other, both of which unfold in these slow-motion POV shots.

Mizu's first impression of Akemi is that of a beautiful, untouchable princess in a cage. Swirling string music in the background.

Akemi's first impression of Mizu is of a mysterious, stoic "demon" samurai who stole her fiance's scarf. Tense music and the sound of ocean waves in the background.

And then, going back to that scene of them together in Episode 4, both Mizu and Akemi continue to fool each other and hold these assumptions of each other, and they both feed into it, as both are purposely acting within the suppressive roles society binds them to in order to achieve their goals within the means they are allowed (Akemi playing the part of a subservient woman; Mizu playing the part of a dominant man).

But then, for once in both their lives, neither of their usual tactics work.

Akemi is trying to use flattery and seduction on Mizu, but Mizu sees right through it, knowing that Akemi is just trying to manipulate and harm her. Rather than give in to Akemi's tactics, Mizu plays with Akemi's emotions by alluding to Taigen's death, before pinning her down, and then when she starts crying, Mizu just rolls her eyes and tells her to shut up.

On the opposite end, when Mizu tries to use brute force and intimidation, Akemi also sees right through it, not falling for it, and instead says this:

"Under your mask, you're not the killer you pretend to be."

Nonetheless, despite the fact that they see a little bit through each other's masks, they both still hold their presumptions of each other until the very end of the season, with Akemi seeing Mizu as an obnoxious samurai swooping in to save the day, and Mizu seeing Akemi as a damsel in distress.

And what I find a bit irksome is that the fandom also resorts to flattening them to these tropes as well.

Because Mizu is not some cool, smooth-talking samurai with a big dick sword as Akemi (and the fandom) might believe. All of that is the facade she puts up and nothing more. In reality, Mizu is an angry, confused and lonely child, and a masterful artist, who is struggling against her own self-hatred. Master Eiji, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

And Akemi, on the other hand, is not some girly, sweet, vain and spoiled princess as Mizu might believe. Instead she has never cared for frivolous things like fashion, love or looks, instead favouring poetry and strategy games instead, and has always only cared about her own independence. Seki, her father figure who knows her best, knows this.

But neither is she some authoritative dominatrix, though this is part of her new persona that she is trying to project to get what she wants. Because while Akemi is willful, outspoken, intelligent and authoritative, she can still be naive! She is still often unsure and needs to have her hand held through things, as she is still learning and growing into her full potential. Her new parental/guardian figure, Madame Kaji, knows this as well.

So with all that being said, now that we know that Mizu and Akemi are essentially wearing masks and putting up fronts throughout the show, what would a representation of Mizu's and Akemi's true selves actually look like? Easy. It's in their hair.

This shot on the left is the only time we see Mizu with her hair completely down. In this scene, she's being berated by Mama, and her guard is completely down, she has no weapon, and is no longer wearing any mask, as this is after she showed Mikio "all of herself" and tried to take off the mask of a subservient housewife. Thus, here, she is sad, vulnerable, and feeling small (emphasised further by the framing of the scene). This is a perfect encapsulation of what Mizu is on the inside, underneath all the layers of revenge-obsession and the walls she's put around herself.

In contrast, the only time we Akemi with her hair fully down, she is completely alone in the bath, and this scene takes place after being scorned by her father and left weeping at his feet. But despite all that, Akemi is headstrong, determined, taking the reigns of her life as she makes the choice to run away, but even that choice is reflective of her youthful naivety. She even gets scolded by Seki shortly after this in the next scene, because though she wants to be independent, she still hasn't completely learned to be. Not yet. Regardless, her decisiveness and moment of self-empowerment is emphasised by the framing of the scene, where her face takes up the majority of the shot, and she stares seriously into the middle distance.

To conclude, I wish popular fanon would stop mischaracterising these two, and flattening them into tropes and stereotypes (ie. masculine badass swordsman Mizu and feminine alluring queen but also girly swooning damsel Akemi), all of which just seems... reductive. It also irks me when Akemi is merely upheld as a love interest and romantic device for Mizu and nothing more, when she is literally Mizu's narrative foil (takes far more narrative precedence over romantic interest) and the deuteragonist of this show. She is her own person. That is literally the theme of her entire character and arc.

#blue eye samurai #mizu blue eye samurai #akemi blue eye samurai #blue eye samurai meta #just in case... im gonna tag this as #mizukemicritical #akemizucritical #though this post isnt actually criticising the ship itself but rather fanon's portrayal of the ship and the characters #for that reason lemme also tag this as #wank.mp3 #feel free to disagree of course but please be civil #and if you need to rant about how wrong i am without any convincing evidence kindly feel free to make your own post. peace and love <3 #fandom.rtf #meta dissertations.pdf #shut up haydar #edit: for full disclosure. i do rather dislike this ship. but obviously it's fine for anyone to enjoy it. please do! have your fun! #it's just that as usual! popular fanon and fandom around a ship is what has completely deterred me from any sense of enjoyment of it #it's a shame too because i was very open and even eager for some mizu/akemi romance in the future #but out-of-character fanon + the rudeness of certain fans has definitely soured it for me #but that doesn't mean people can't enjoy it obviously! ship and let ship!!! #plus it has its appeal which i DO STILL see and enjoy!!!! #i would even go as far as to call them soulmates because their narratives and characters are LITERALLY intertwined!!! #but. yeah. my gradual distaste for this ship is indeed very unfortunate.

[crienselt]

So a few days ago I saw someone (elsewhere) questioning Zutara fans’ excitement about the scarf scene. It wasn't a mean comment, more general curiosity. And well, I didn't have time to get my thoughts out then. But they haven't gone away, so I'm getting them out here:

Here’s what everyone need to understand about Zutara shippers. We were baited baaaad during the initial run of the show–from the magazines to the shorts to the trailers and how they were cut. And Zuko and Katara’s relationship on the show certainly underwent a lot of development and featured objectively emotional–if not overtly romantic–moments between the two. We were well fed, and we had reason to hope. Right up to the end, we had reason to hope.

The shipping wars were the shipping wars, of course, with all the usual tensions; there are always going to be overzealous fans of each (and any) pairing willing to get toxic. Generally, I think Kataang fans were always jealous of Zutara’s popularity and Zutara fans, post finale, were jealous of Kataang’s, well, canon status. But really it operated much the same as any other large fandom’s shipping wars.

And then came Bryke and the panel where they showed and mocked Zutara fan art, some of which had been created by teens if not straight up children. Then came their, “Come on, kids! It was never going to work. Zutara is just dark and intriguing.”* And the pièce de résistance, their telling Zutara shippers (specifically girls/women) that they were doomed to have failed romantic relationships. Like, what? The thing with the art was arguably cruel, and the rest of it was oh, so condescending. Just all around not well done. 

The after effect was that Zutara went from being simply a fanon pairing to a wrong pairing. The ATLA fandom at large became a far more hostile place for Zutara fans, who were now more commonly deemed delusional and viewed as lesser fans. The vitriol only got worse when the show came to Netfilx and the next wave of antis rolled up with their co-opting of legitimate socio-political terms to paint Zutara not just as wrong but morally corrupt if not evil. It’s all very puritanical.**

So Zutara fans need to be reminded that we weren’t delusional, and we aren’t alone. It’s why it means so much to know that Dante Basco and Mae Whitman shipped their characters. And that so many other VAs came out as Zutara supporters too: Jack De Sena, Michaela Jill Murphy, Grey DeLisle, Janet Varney--even the cabbage man. For it to be revealed that it was discussed in the writers room; that the writers fought over it; that it WAS a canon possibility. (And that writers Joshua Hamilton and John O’Bryan are perfectly comfortable admitting their preference for Zutara.) To know that the Elizabeth Welch Ehasz described Zuko and Katara as an “Avatar-style Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” in the script for The Southern Raiders, and used the phrase “Zutara-feuling synchronicity and cooperation” to describe their action sequences. To see Giancarlo Volpe, a Kataanger, admit Zutara might been the better pairing in retrospect and choose a quiet scene between them (to see their “chemistry”) as what he’d most look forward to in the live action adaptation. It’s why we cling to the artwork done by Korean animation director. We aren’t delusional. We aren’t alone.

But try telling that to the general fandom, right? Most are ignorant of a lot of this, particularly Hamilton and O’Bryan’s revelations re: the writers room. A lot of Zutara fans don't even seem to know. But being baited by Netflix on their official accounts? Oh, people see that. And we are reminded in a big way that we aren't delusional and we aren't alone. And everyone else has to remember it too.

So, of course, we're having fun clowning over the scarf scene. And I think most Zutara fans know we are clowning. I don't think most expect to get canon Zutara in live action because of one little scene or the fact that their Netflix icons are facing each other. (I headcanon that that was totally the doing of Zutara shipper on staff, though, lol. Because there are a lot of us, and we are everywhere.)

And this is okay. Zutara has been doing just fine as a fanon ship. Meanwhile, NATLA might actually do Kataang justice. It always worked better as a future ship. (Really all the pairings do. But I especially don't ever need to see another 12 year old kissing let alone making out, in animation or live action, ever again.) There's a reason Padme and Anakin don't get together in Phantom Menace, after all. Also, there's always the chance they could give us Dante's or Mae's headcanon of them basically suppressing their feelings and choosing duty over love/right person-wrong time. And the odds of getting some more moments to clown over are high enough. 

Anyway, TLDR: Zutara has been made to feel like an out-of-nowhere crack ship and the live action crumbs remind us that it is not. And this is at least partially why we are enjoying it. (Because, also, it's just fun!)

*Side tangent: I’ve never gotten this dark and intriguing comment. Even during Season 1, the height of the capture fic era, Zutara was always a ship fundamentally about hope, predicated on Zuko's redemption. (Back in the day, there were also plenty of antis arguing that there was no way Zuko would ever be one of the gaang.) And they say “intriguing” like it’s a bad thing? Are we not supposed to be interested in the relationships of their characters???

**There have been some very good think pieces written lately on late stage capitalism and consumption as morality. Worth googling.

#Zutara #atla #natla

[ranpoedgw]

the sugar-coating of ranpoe

as we're all familiar with, ranpoe is a pretty popular ship in the bsd fandom and is often said to be a very healthy/fluffy ship. however, fanon ranpoe is honestly an incredibly sugar-coated version of how they really are in canon. ranpoe is not the fluffy innocent ship people think they are, and are in fact almost as bad as many other ships in bsd. let me explain.

first, i want to talk about the babyfication of ranpoe *in canon*. yes i know authors can't mischaracterise their own characters, but that doesn't mean they can't choose to portray them through a warped view. in ranpoe's case, it's also the authors themselves who choose to portray ranpoe as a comic relief duo. like, the way poe commits (attempted) murder is so unserious? and ranpo (as usual) just... doesn't seem to care that poe tried to kill him? and encourages him to try again?

compared to skk for example, who when they try to kill each other it's actually portrayed with some kind of intense hatred and/or murderous intent.

of course i'll never know what the authors were thinking, but they probably chose to portray ranpoe as such with the intention of ranpoe being a fluffy crack ship. which is fine, because they're the authors obviously and they can do what they want, and this also gives ranpoe their own unique dynamic. however, the issue with this is that it causes people to be completely blinded towards what's actually happening between ranpoe, and only see them through the rose-tinted glasses which the authors have handed to us. hence, i'm going to objectively recount everything that happened with ranpoe.

around six years ago, ranpo beat poe in a battle of wits.

poe went into this reclusive state where he refused to interact with other people, and is implied to have been suicidal/depressed.

eventually, poe decides to plot his revenge by writing a novel in order to kill ranpo and obtain the praise and glory that ranpo has.

six years pass.

poe meets ranpo again, and tries to kill him. he fails.

they end up establishing a mutual relationship where poe writes novels, and ranpo gives him feedback. poe no longer seems to want revenge.

fast forward to chapter 80, by this time ranpo has asked poe for help regarding a lot of things, all agency-related.

one, ranpo said he wanted a showdown to trick poe into writing a novel for him, which he then used against chuuya.

he asked poe to write a novel in about ~30 mins to corner mushitaro.

in the volume 20 omake, ranpo also asked poe to write a novel to house 3 people by the next day.

ranpo asked poe to help him rescue the agency members in chapter 80. poe helped to snipe the lock on kunikida's cell, and prepare a vehicle to save yosano.

in the recent chapters, it was also mentioned that ranpo had poe write a novel to trap fukuchi.

based on this brief (??) summary, you can probably see a bunch of things which are not very right. first of all, poe experienced severe withdrawal after losing his match with ranpo, and for six years his only goal was to defeat him. secondly, poe is doing a LOT of things for ranpo, which aren't really reciprocated. there might also be other things, but i will just focus on these two.

1. poe is heavily reliant on ranpo.

as you can see, poe is a pretty fragile person. he lost one match to ranpo and basically gave up on life. he became overly reliant on ranpo's existence to affirm his own, and even now he dreads the possibility of ranpo dying and leaving him without a rival. and while poe who has almost no friends is entirely dependent on ranpo, ranpo always has the agency to support him, so he isn't all that emotionally dependent on poe. he still needs poe for his novels and such, but it's not often that he shows/says that poe is really important to him as a person. however, ranpo does clearly appreciate poe's intellect and abilities and praised him before. ranpo never praises people, so this is a pretty big occurrence.

in this sense, poe really needs ranpo but ranpo doesn't realllly need poe (or at least he doesn't show it).

2. poe does a lot for ranpo but not the other way round. i think this kind of speaks for itself tbh. poe helps ranpo with a whole lot of things, and ranpo doesn't give him much in return. obviously there is something wrong with this, but because poe is so eager to impress/help ranpo, he seems to have no issues with this.

as you may (unfortunately) know, because of the above reasons some people say that ranpoe's relationship is "toxic" or "abusive", but i believe this is inaccurate. based on a few dictionaries, the word "toxic" carries the meaning of unpleasant, extremely harsh, malicious or harmful. however, ranpo asking poe for help with a lot of things isn't done with the intention to harm or assert control over poe. he just really needs poe's help and poe is willing as well as capable. also, he probably isn't aware that he's overworking poe because he's not sensitive to other people's emotional needs or wants. and poe doesn't do all this because ranpo is threatening him, he's just very (overly) eager to do it.

despite everything, ranpoe isn't completely horrible. they're not the best, but they certainly aren't the worst. none of them seem to visibly hold grudges or have issues with the other, and are generally happy with their current arrangement. they share each other's interests and provide the other with the intellectual stimulus that they need.

also, the authors' "sugar-coating" of their relationship isn't completely off. due to the nature of their personalities, it still makes sense that they can get along. after all, ranpo was once held at gunpoint when he was 14 and didn't give a flip so i doubt he'd really care about poe attempting to murder him. and on poe's side, i think he's always been fragile and a little pathetic so this is pretty normal for him.

and even though their relationship is kinda unbalanced, they do hold each other in equally high regard (including ranpo, although he doesn't show it. he doesn't really show anything) this is also why i think ranpoe isn't an idol-fan relationship. parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence. poe definitely extends a lot of energy in helping ranpo, i don't deny. but the baseline for a parasocial relationship is that one person is almost unaware of the other. before guild arc this was true, but right now ranpo is very much aware of poe's existence, and admires poe just as much as poe does him. hence, i don't think ranpoe is a parasocial relationship.

overall, ranpoe is still heavily sugar-coated by the fandom and authors who don't really acknowledge the issues within their relationship. however the rose-tinted glasses don't completely warp everything, and their dynamic, both canon and fanon, isn't totally off from how it should be, based on my knowledge of their personalities. they're just a silly little couple doing their silly gay things. everything is fine (half lying)

thanks for reading 🔥🔥

#analysis #ranpo edogawa #bsd #bungo stray dogs #ranpo #ranpoe #poe bsd #bsd edgar allan poe

[olderthannetfic]

I think a lot of the lack of femslash criticisms also miss the fact that fandom emerges from canon and will reflect, for better or worse, what is already in that canon. So if we have a majority male cast, with the main character being male and the rival being male and the mentor-figure being male and the villains being largely male... I mean, just in terms of numbers and which relationships have the most emotional energy, fandom largely will have majority m/m. And genre fiction, which fandom tends to gravitate towards, is heavily biased towards male characters.

(And even when male side characters get a lot of shipping... usually they're fitting other common popular fandom tropes or they're essentially more fanon than an actual thing people ship-ship. You probably aren't going to be shipping the Female Love Interest™ with another side female character except in a Pair The Spares or background ship sort of way, but Those Two Guys are probably gonna get shipped and typically they're going to be dudes. And even those kinds of het or slash ships can come across as deceivingly popular when they actually aren't, because they're more like popular fanon so they pop up a lot in fics but only in the background rather than the main focus, and those are same ships I often see being brought up as "if you can ship two background men then why aren't you shipping this femslash ship!" wank alongside anomalies like Klux)

Even the Among Us fandom which has the gender-ambiguous characters often interpreted as male. Yes, from what I can tell m/m is way more popular but in terms of genre and setting which will influence how people write for it, it's mostly male characters. It's essentially The Thing In Space and The Thing had a male cast while Alien is notable for being an exception by having a female protagonist in that kind of space setting, and even then, it was still majority male characters in terms of raw numbers, all of which will influence fanfic writers and artists. Plus from what I've read there's often some kind of gender fuckery going on with the Imposter so m/m might even been entirely accurate for a lot of those fics. So while there are perhaps valid criticisms about the lack of female characters in those genres in general that fandom then reflects, it's unreasonable to suggest it's just fandom hating women. Plus everything we've already covered around how it's also related to what a majority queer women (and trans-people-who-were-AFAB) with potentially complicated feelings about female bodies find hot and fun.

But go to the magical girl genre and it's majority femslash, just like how even on ao3 any buddy-cop show with a male and female lead will primarily be het. And when there is a female relationship given the most focus, or when it's canon, the fandom will obviously be majority femslash even on ao3. And I get that it's frustrating when the genres you enjoy have a dearth of women in them or shittily written women, and I agree that we should do better with that, but it's not fandom's responsibility to do so (and it's not like there isn't an entire subgenre of fix-it fics that aren't "what if this female character was written well"). It feels kinda mean to say it, but if you want femslash right now you might want to look in different genres where the protagonist and the most significant characters related to them are all women, and one without a canon male love interest (or a really boring, blank slate one no one cares about).

--

I don't watch Xena for the dudes, definitely. Haha.

Re the Among Us thing, someone said a lot of the fic was clearly inspired by streamers anyway, so that's where the genders are coming from.

[imakemywings]

After the juicy "Celebrimbor not talking to any of his family" take, you've hit us with another equally juicy (but probably controversial lol) take of Russingon which is something I've been riding for a while now, @spiritofwhitefire spoke nothing but facts. Still, on a serious note (no offense, I really love that ship so much) the constant characterization of Fingon as blindy forgiving, and always siding with Maedhros (or like being desperate to be with him) was probably what made me sour a bit on Russingon. Fingon has other personalities and motivations besides being Maedhros' love interest or being his hype man but seriously, he's Fingolfin's son, and seeing how close and loyal Fingon was to Fingolfin, I am sure, he would be genuinely pissed at Maedhros. I can't imagine him instantly forgiving Mae or something, and even if he did, does his forgiveness mean something to Mae because, at the end of the day, Maedhros is still doggedly loyal to Feanor. Anyway, this is just me being fixated on your tags, "not wanting maedhros to die a miserable death at morgoth's hands doesn't necessarily equate to total instant and complete forgiveness, "honestly a huge fan of their friendship never fully recovering..." please tell me more. I love your headcanons.

I don't mean to be in opposition to so many popular fandom takes 😅I'm usually not this bad about that...

Sure, maybe Fingon is a saint who harbors no resentment...but I'm not particularly interested in that take. #1, Fingon is presumably made a kinslayer in Alqualonde for the sake of the Feanorians, whom he believed were under unjust assault, but who were, in fact, the aggressors. #2, Although Maedhros does not partake in the burning of the ships at Losgar (something it's implied Fingon learns eventually), neither did he make any effort to stop it, and that decision of the Feanorians' helped condemn the rest of the Noldor host to the Helcaraxe, where, among other things, Fingon's sister-in-law dies. I would say he certainly has grounds to be angry with Maedhros and furthermore, to distrust him going forward.

Not to say these specific things are entirely or even primarily Maedhros' fault...but I think it would be very hard not to be angry with a cousin/close friend who had helped to put you in these positions, particularly depending on how Maedhros handles the situation after their reunion (i.e. whether he apologizes or doubles down or tries to pretend nothing is wrong).

This definitely relates to my general feelings on Maedhros becoming the center of everything in this fandom but yes, the way Fingon orbits around him in so much fanon gets quite old. I'll be honest and say I don't ship Russingon even a tiny bit so it's doubly grating to see Fingon reduced to either Maedhros' hype man (if alive) or his angst-generator (if dead) and have that romance be cast as so core to everything Fingon (or Maedhros!) does. And I do think there can be plenty of crunchy drama even without the romance aspect (Anyone who's had a friendship go sour can probably attest to this).

But in terms of actual character motivation and reactions--I think it's just a lot more interesting if there are actual consequences to Maedhros' actions in terms of a relationship that was really important to him, rather than Fingon just completely forgiving Maedhros everything always so that there's no friction in the relationship.

For one, as I talked about here, their relationship already had problems before the rebellion of the Noldor. How bad things got between them in Tirion is really up to our interpretation, but it is very apparent things were not kosher between them even before Losgar happened, and before Alqualonde. I can't imagine that doesn't color later events between them.

For another, Fingon's motivations in seeking Maedhros out in Thangorodorim were political. They were also personal, but the first motivation mentioned in his decision to seek Maedhros as Melkor's prisoner is to reunite the Noldor. And as I mentioned in those tags, just because he didn't want Maedhros to die a miserable death or experience indefinite torment at Melkor's hands doesn't necessarily mean he forgave him, or even still considered him a friend. MOST of us would not want to see someone we know suffer Maedhros' fate, regardless of what they had done to us.

"Then Fingon the valiant, son of Fingolfin, resolved to heal the feud that divided the Noldor, before their Enemy should be ready for war...Fingon had been close in friendship with Maedhros...Therefore he dared a deed which is justly renowned among the feats of the princes of the Noldor." ("Of the Return of the Noldor")

If nothing else, I imagine their relationship was always complicated after this. To your point above, Maedhros is deeply committed to fulfilling the oath of his father, and as the Nolofinweans and Arafinweans were there when the Feanorians swore to deal death on anyone handling a Silmaril, they have to be aware of at least the possibility that that may cause trouble someday (I'm sure they did not anticipate the scale or severity).

So Fingolfin, Fingon's father, is king (thanks to Maedhros)...but Maedhros is loyal to his oath above all else. And Maedhros still holds considerable sway over the Feanorians (I would venture to say it's a common theory if not outright knowledge that, should push come to shove, the Feanorians will obey Maedhros, not Fingolfin). How does Fingon feel about that?

To me, these things, in addition to Maedhros' earlier behavior (being part of the initial kinslaying at Alqualonde, not trying to stop the burning of the swan ships) mean that Fingon can never fully trust Maedhros again. There will always be at least a sliver of doubt and mistrust there, wondering at Maedhros' ulterior motives, at his end-game plans. And I don't think Maedhros is very good at making this not the case because he is always trying to play 5-D chess, and he's not always sneaky about it.

That bit above about how the Feanorians are loyal to Maedhros over Fingolfin? I imagine that goes doubly when Fingon becomes high king. Whatever respect the sons of Feanor might have had for Fingolfin as their elder they almost certainly do not have for their young cousin. And I do love takes where Maedhros (successfully or unsuccessfully) sees Fingon as far more malleable than Fingolfin and is trying to manipulate him from behind the scenes. (Particularly if this interacts with any insecurities Fingon may have about his abilities as king--to think that even Maedhros sees him as a weak ruler/weaker than his father!)

I don't mean to suggest they were never close again after the rebellion (although you could perhaps make the case), but that there was never the same level of trust, ease, and companionship in that friendship that there had been before. Forever after, there was always political calculus involved, because of the kingship, because of the oath, because of Maedhros' refusal to disavow the actions of his family (Admittedly--we don't know what position he took on Alqualonde or Losgar afterwards; it's never stated or even implied, iirc. However, based on his response to Celegorm and Curufin's attempted coup against Finrod [nothing] and the attempted assault of Luthien [nothing] and attempted murder of Beren [nothing], I will extrapolate the headcanon that he was not keen to admit to either of the earlier instances as being a mistake.)

Anyway to me it's sooo tasty if they stayed (sort of) friends and yet there was this unspoken mistrust that was always there after that, perhaps alongside a kind of golden nostalgia for the "old days" of their friendship.

(Also juicy drama to me if Fingon becomes a lot closer with Finrod than he had been in Aman due to Helcaraxe trauma/responsibility bonding and Maedhros has to grind his teeth and live with the fact that Fingon trusts Finrod more than he trusts Maedhros now. And lots of love for fans who also explore Fingon's canonical friendship with Aegnor and Angrod! )

There's also the fact that Fingon bites the dust before the worst of Maedhros' actions. I simply cannot see Fingon justifying the assault on Doriath, or Sirion, or the kidnapping of Elrond and Elros, or the assault on Eonwe's Elven guard. Absolutely, there is grief in seeing someone you loved and valued become someone you cannot support, but I can never buy into post-Mandos takes where Fingon just handwaves everything Maedhros did after Fingon's death.

So yes, there it is. Maedhros and Fingon's political drama charged friendship fallout.

#asks #anonymous #maedhros #fingon #the silmarillion #tolkien tag

[deadscell]

is there anything you don't like about the mgs fandom? and is there popular fanon you wish wasn't popular?

hey anon thanks for the ask <33

well, in my experience with the metal gear solid fandom it feels like if you aren’t apart of a certain ship between two characters then you are wrong, or sometimes in my case if you like a certain character, that can become a problem because people don’t agree with your opinion. also collectively it feels like the fandom (especially people who grew up with the series) can never just agree on something completely.

going back to character ships, i think it’s perfectly fine if you don’t like a ship or necessarily even agree with it, people are allowed to have their own desired dynamic between two characters, as long as it isn’t hurting anyone, it is fiction after all. my general criticism for the fandom is probably just to relax and let other people, enjoy the characters they love without harassing them for it. my biggest issue is definitely the toxicity of the fandom, but no matter what fandom anyone is apart of that’s always going to be apart of the equation.

there is a general gripe i have with the fandom, not everybody who likes metal gear solid have played the games. but from all of the content creators i’ve seen play through some of the games, there’s something that’s always bothered me. complaining about someone’s play style isn’t productive, you can give them advice and support if they wish (don’t even get me started on backseating). but the amount of people i’ve seen telling players that they aren’t “real” metal gear solid fans because they aren’t playing on an extreme difficulty is astounding. usually that’s a tell tale sign for how old they are, and if they want to do that then that’s fine.

playing on a highly difficult mode doesn’t make a player superior, all it proves is that they know the game well with time on their side. new players of metal gear solid won’t necessarily be good or even particularly like stealth, though as long as they understand the general consensus of the game and it’s mechanics i don’t think people need to worry about how someone else is playing a game. anyway, personally i love the metal gear games, as well as the cqc and stealth mechanic of the games too, but i would never play on extreme or european extreme it would just be deemed unplayable. i play the games to goof around and have fun, not to prove a point to anyone.

to be honest, it’s more about ships that don’t make sense to me. the ship between kaz and ocelot has always been more of a joke ship to me, considering the circumstances of what happens to miller before the events of metal gear solid 1. now i don’t know how big of a proportion of people ship ocelot and volgin. mostly i just find that it doesn’t make much sense, and there isn’t anything that happens between them to suggest a romantic pairing between the two, that’s just my opinion though. also, thinking about the age difference between ocelot and volgin just makes me dislike the dynamic even more (volgin was in his fifties during the events of snake eater, and ocelot was twenty years old.) also the idea is comical considering ocelot helped take part in the death of volgin in the first place.

the ship between vamp and raiden isn’t one i wished didn’t exist, it’s more that i don’t understand where it came from, not that it’s inherently bad or anything, because if anything i encourage and invite it in. the small group of people i can count on my left hand who are huey emmerich enjoyers is something i wish i could rid of, because my question is… have you played the game? or have you even watched what happened because of the involvement of that man? an overall complaint i have is with some of the people apart of the fanon itself, over-sexualising the characters they are shipping, i wish that would tone down at least.

#anon ask #metal gear solid #mgs #metal gear #metal gear series #kazuhira miller #revolver ocelot #mgs volgin #mgs vamp #mgs raiden #huey emmerich #snake eater

[pepsiiwho]

Oh, you KNOW I was made for the hate wins ask game. Could I get uhhhhhhhhhhhh 1, 5, 6, 7 & 16, please? <3 I would ask you more, but I feel like that's excessive, and I need to get to work now. Okay, love u, bye, see you when I get home <333

sigh. Don't touch me.

I don't have a single fandom I'm known for or particularly attached to right now, so ill just jump around as i feel.

THE CHARACTER EVERYONE GETS WRONG

I am self appointed idiot who makes every character i get my grubby little hands on ooc. Because of this, I can't say for sure that any characterization I see of my faves is objectively WRONG because my own ideal version of them is surely not right. Now, having been an adult and saying all this I can say with the utmost confidence this award must go to Claude Von Riegan [FE3H] just by virtue of how he's probably one of the more popular characters i adore and as such gets the brunt of the bullshit.

I hate when people write him as this flirty, overly charming guy. Claude cannot flirt his way out of a clear bag and he is paranoid as shit. He isn't seducing your white prince and dragging him down to the dark (ha) side. He also doesn't strike me as someone who's deeply curious about other house's gossip because he actually cares. Claude stays in the know because not knowing is a blind-spot he can't allow himself to have. Screams. its whatever.

5. WORST DISCORD SERVER AND WHY

Worst discord I was ever in ... hard toss up between the ye-olden HQ discord servers or the one dmcl one I was in? Surprisingly, as far as I experienced it, both had very nice people in it on the whole. But the sad truth is too many cooks in the kitchen fucks up the simple soup-- which is to say, having so many other fans with different [WRONG] interpretations was annoying.

I can't deal with not having complete control or like, a general understanding with the people around me in fandom discussions so these servers were just, by their own nature, places I was never meant to be in. [Spits] What do you mean CLAUDE would wanna join the BL class. Go to hell.

6. WHICH SHIP FANS ARE THE MOST ANNOYING? WHY?

Short answer? sylvix. Long answer? Regardless of the fandom, the fans of the biggest most accepted ship [canon or otherwise] will always be the loudest and most annoying imo.

When you've never had to work for your food you get comfortable fast and complain more. Its a natural byproduct of being lucky enough to deeply enjoy the lowest common denominator. In most cases, regardless of fandom-- whatever reigns supreme brings the biggest headaches with it. But If this is still too general then... mmm.. people who ship objectively canon ships because their imaginations can be too small and they'll find rare-pairs odd, weird or even stupid to be into. Many a time I've had someone tell me "they've never even spoken tho.." as if that was a needed component of every ship. They're tiresome people with tiresome arguments. But it's whatever <- she is the most annoying bitch alive.

7. WHICH CHARACTER DID FANON RUIN FOR YOU?

This one is really interesting honestly. I'm usually pretty ambivalent about anyone that isn't in the blorbo pile or the poison pit.... but.... maybe Dedue or Ferdinand? Dedue because f3h fans racism and Ferdinand because he was always someone shipped with Hubert and little else. I think its sad, both ,men have so much going for them too. I'll put Tsukishima on this list as well because he was my number one and ruined by fandom. Actually no put like 90% of the HQ cast here actually hq Fandom sucks ass and ruins every cool guy. it's a bitch.

16. YOU CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY SO MANY PEOPLE LIKE THIS THING

God. I'm such a hater.,... this could really go on forever... Okay, I swat at the hornets nest for this one. fics over 100k. 9 times out of ten, they're not good. Quantity/=/ Quality. Usually most of the word count is just used for shit you didn't even come to the story for. That's fine, I respect any writer who can even make that much of ANYTHING, but people who can read it (and more so ACTIVELY search for it) are odd to me.

I've been worrying on this for a few days and mellowed out since I started so nothing is tooo grating or bitchy here. Look guys I'm kind and sweet forever. Enjoy. Huzzah.

#the funnies #im #not tagging all this shit #lol

[cowardlybean]

your ask button is so tiny it’s so funny

anywho ask game mob psycho fucking all the questions. all of them. i didn’t even read it just answer them all i wanna know

This is gonna be a long ass post :3

the character everyone gets wrong: Tome is a speculative biology enjoyer. thats it thats the post! I also feel like Teruki is more violent than people portray him

a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom: I’mmmm not answering this (cannot decide a fav and most characters are minors lmaooo)

screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr : the worst take ever is shipping Reigen and Mob. Gross! Die.

what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person?: I haven’t been here long enough to have any annoying people

worst discord server and why: not in any

which ship fans are the most annoying?: if you ship rei//mob. DIE!

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?: i already hated Mogami (not from a narrative standpoint, i LOVE the Mogami arc its gutwrenching) but aBoT fic made me hate him even more. KILL HIM!!!

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about: Tome is aroace i don’t make the rules (is projecting) but in all seriousness I Really prefer Mob being aroace because his relationship with Tsubomi really reflects my aromantic experience of making up a crush because that’s what I assume it’s supposed to be

worst part of canon: i love the entire show. sooo. i mean i guess its hard for me to watch Reigen on the psychic tv show bc of secondhand embarrassment kicking my ASS

worst part of fanon: sexualizing middle schoolers

number of fandom-related words you've filtered: idk but they’re all gross ships

the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them: not unpopular in the “people hate her” sense but Tome needs more attention, shes so autism and i love her role in the Reigen manga

worst blorboficiation: I haven’t been here long but I haven’t seen a lot of Dimple character study content, usually he's just there because he's always there

that one thing you see in fics all the time: autistic Mob and trans Reigen (positive)

that one thing you see in fanart all the time: older Mob being taller than Reigen which I think is silly <3

you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc): idk how popular it is but mob sympathizing with Mogami just. is not my thing

there should be more of this type of fic/art: Reigen in mogamiland, its so interesting to me

it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on...: BROCCOLI ARC BODY HORROR!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly its fucking terrifying already when Mobs friends slowly convert to Dimple-ism but can you imagine. The roots creeping beneath. :3 AND ALSO Reigen having a fear of being on live tv is underrated 

you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like...: not genuinely ashamed but my guilty pleasure is bashing Reigen over the head with angst

part of canon you found tedious or boring: cant think of any

part of canon you think is overhyped: also cant think of any rn

your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores: the fact that spirits have the power to brainwash without possessing people?? like Dimples two cults are. terrifying!! bc Mob couldn’t sense a spirit changing their minds bc Dimple was chilling in the broccoli

ship you've unwillingly come around to: not genuinely upset about it but I was so surprised I ended up liking yoshieku (Dimple x security guard) the bond between an evil spirit and the man he randomly possessed is incredible

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse: dunno any

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing: also dunno any

#mp100 #mob psycho 100 #cowardly speaks #i havent hung around the fandom long enough tbh its only been a couple months

[seventeenlovesthree]

Fandom Shipping Polls - Mimi Tachikawa Shipping Analysis (Poll I + Poll II)

As pointed out in the main post, every single Chosen Child will get their individual analysis post to check on the status of the current popularity of their ships. With that out of the way, let’s take a look at Mimi, shall we!  

The overall results / spreadsheet

Disclaimer: As the “Someone from 01/02″ and “Others” options from poll 1 and the “Someone from 01/02″ option from poll 2 have been excluded from the final analysis due to redundancy reasons and all results were culminated in another “final count”, the results will not be 1:1 to what the polls look like:

Overall votes: 127 (approx. 111 in sum after the exclusion), the main poll got 89 votes, the secondary poll got 38 votes.

The “Others” choice in the main poll received 4% (approx. 4 votes) and 2% (approx. 1 vote) in the secondary poll. The comments/tags did not specify any preferences here (aside from characters that were already part of the main choices).

Ship Analysis

1st place: As you may have guessed, I had already started to prepare the graphic designs a few days before the polls had ended - and I actually did expect Koushiro to win this one, considering how many times he had tied with Jou and actually surpassed him in the votes for the majority of the run-time. However, Jou (22%) picked up speed in the last few days and won with a lead of three votes in the end. Within the tumblr fandom - and especially throughout the last year -, the ship has gained visibly more attention than it has in other internet spheres, especially Japanese centric. Considering how their bond is displayed in the anime, framing their arcs to intertwine at several points in the timeline around the theme of “selfish choices vs own choices”, it is not surprising that they are viewed as viable romantic options for each other as well. They do discover their roles as supporting characters while also supporting each other just splendidly, with tiny hints of (mutual) affection sprinkled in, making it quite an appealing ship.

2nd place: Koushiro (19%) came in as second choice, despite the fact that he had led the poll by a marginal lead several times. And that is not surprising at all - as mentioned in his own analyis already, Koumi is considered to be one of the most popular Koushiro centric ships world-wide. This is due to their set-up in the series as being odd-balls of the same age while simultaneously bouncing off of each other very well as one of the go-to “opposites attract” dynamics. Additionally, Tri canonically made Koushiro crush on Mimi, solidifying a consistent fanon-headcanon (which usually goes the other way round, with her having a crush on him instead). While the portrayal of the crush was not appreciated everywhere equally, they have always been going strong for valid reasons. 

3rd place: For the first time, we actually have an undeniable tie, as both Sora and Taichi received the exact same number of votes (14 = 13%). While Sora had comfortably remained as sole heir of the third spot for a long time, Taichi had slowly but steadily caught up to her - leaving several choices behind that will be thoroughly mentioned in the Honorary mentions section. Sora’s lead is easy to explain, as both girls have been supporting each other and growing together throughout the series, displaying a gentle and loving bond despite their obious differences in character and design. Taichi on the other hand may appear to be more of a subtle choice in canon, but enjoys a lot of popularity as potential partner for Mimi in fandom, due to their rare, yet endearing interactions with one another.

Honorary mentions: Here we have quite a number of interesting characters, such as Miyako (who had tied with Taichi for fourth place for quite some time, but ended at 9%), Meiko (7%), Yamato (6%) and Michael (5%). While Miyako, Meiko and Michael are usually shipped with Mimi due to their foundations in the anime - with Miyako and Meiko being clearly enchanted by her and Michael and her bonding during her time in America -, Yamato is among the male fanon favourites. As Honorary mention among the honorary mentions, Takeru (2%) can also be mentioned.

“The 1 vote squad”: This spot is reserved for for Ken (1%) and Wallace (1%).

“0 votes go to...”: Hikari, Daisuke and Iori received 0 votes each.

Annotations: N/A.

What did the other polls say?

Mimi won Jou’s (38%) and Meiko’s (42%) polls, came in second in Koushiro’s (21%) and (technically) Sora’s (18%) and also finished third in Miyako’s (17%), thus making her one of the most represented choices in the “higher tiers”.

While Taichi and Yamato scored higher in Mimi’s own poll, she did not receive as many votes in their respective polls (5% and 4%), but still counts there as Honorable mention.

She was more of a niche choice in the polls for - surprisingly - Iori (2%), Takeru (1%) and Daisuke (1%). 

In the polls for Ken and Hikari, she received 0 votes - just like Hikari did in her own, thus ruling Mikari out as viable ship completely.

Notable additions / comments / thoughts

While her polls did not receive the most amount of votes, it is quite clear that Mimi inherits the reputation as currently being one of the most popular Adventure characters overall. With 127 votes, Mimi came in fifth after Taichi, Ken, Takeru and Daisuke, and even though the overall numbers are still just a comparably small sample size, it still makes her the female character with the most votes - and the most diversity in the results so far. While Jou and Koushiro were never threatened to be surpassed as first and second place, the competition between them - as well as between Sora and Taichi as third place - had been tough. Plus, several characters (Miyako, Meiko, Yamato and Michael) surpassed the “niche” option of 1-2 votes, indicating that there is quite some variation in the way how and with whom people like to ship Mimi. There is also the (in my opinion very important) notion that she’s a highly popular choice not only in the polls for the male characters (Jou and Koushiro in particular) but also in the polls for the female characters (Meiko, Sora and Miyako in particular). Which is absolutely backed up by her canon portrayal, as she is having some of her most emotional character development moments during interactions with other female characters - while also displaying quite a tendency to be affectionate and physical with them. With some male characters, she may not share as many interactions in comparison, but due to her personality structure, openness, kindness and sincerity, it is absolutely understandable that the fandom enjoys the potential her relationships offer. Still, I really hope to reach a wider audience if I choose to repeat the polls once the fandom is not as quiet as it is right now.

The comments in the tags have only referred to the already mentioned choices (”MIYAKO” and “SORA”) in all caps in particular). So the “Others” option did not reveal any other potentially preferred suitors. This leaves room for speculation, but usually, the option is reserved for OC ships or for when people prefer to not ship a character at all or when they’re considered asexual (which will definitely be a future option to include as well!)

Other Analysis Posts 

Taichi Yagami Shipping Analysis

Yamato Ishida Shipping Analysis

Sora Takenouchi Shipping Analysis

Koushiro Izumi Shipping Analysis

Jou Kido Shipping Analysis

Takeru Takaishi Shipping Analysis

Hikari Yagami Shipping Analysis

Daisuke Motomiya Shipping Analysis

Ken Ichijouji Shipping Analysis

Miyako Inoue Shipping Analysis

Iori Hida Shipping Analysis

Meiko Mochizuki Shipping Analysis

#mimi tachikawa #digimon #digimon polls #digimon shipping #meta #my two cents #my edit #joumi #jyoumi #koumi #somi #soramimi #michi #taimi

[acalculatedfuture]

✒️ the muse's canon📝 the muse's fanon📖 a popular headcanon regarding my muse 👽 AUs 🌓 crossovers👬 shipping💟 the fandom's most popular ship that involves my muse ((For Aaron!))

send an emoji and i'll tell you my opinion on…

✒️ the muse's canon

Unfortunately Aaron has like 5 lines in canon and practically never showed up in spin-offs until Pokemas (he did show up in the anime though even if it was kinda ass) so there's not a lot to know about him but there's some pretty interesting stuff, he's a perfectionist that trains an underused type and represents one of the most minor trainer classes on the higher leagues and also he's super athletic take notes Lucian

📝 the muse's fanon

what fanon

📖 a popular headcanon regarding my muse

I can't think of any headcanons involving Aaron that are super popular since he's a very underrated character but I like the one that he's the most recent member of the Sinnoh Elite 4 because he just looks like it

👽 AUs /🌓 crossovers

I love AUs I cook them all the time for my muses (and then never talk about them because I have supreme anxiety but they do exist)

Crossovers are a little harder for me to work with if I don't know the source material very well but I also enjoy them they're really fun

👬 shipping

I don't take shipping very seriously since at the end of the day it's just for fun and I don't think there's anything wrong with retconning a ship in case it doesn't work out so I'm very open to testing ship ideas and seeing how they turn out

I love shipping it's great it's fun

💟 the fandom's most popular ship that involves my muse

It's Aaron x Lucian and it's like

eh

Like I don't hate it but it pretty much just exists to get them out of the way of Flint and Cynthia ships so it's very basic most of the time and usually their chemistry amounts to existing around each other so I don't really care about it either

#about: aaron #ooc #meme reply #psychic-master-will

[lovely-oh-so-lovelyyui]

Fandom Struggles

Skip to the final 2 paragraphs cuz that's the main bit

hello anon darling, now i'm not sure if you are the same person or different people but these requests have been piling up for the past couple of months in my asks not only on my main but on my karl rp blog too.

now do not worry my darlings i am aware there are a lot more of these but these seemed like the main issues at hand so i narrowed them down i will talk through or well  explain these to the best of my ability.

to preface this i am obviously not talking about all the blogs when i say this but from my own experience.

now to start:

first off i am going to address the entire notion of me socialising with certain blogs and i will put out context for why it seems that way; i am a pretty extroverted person and i am also a little gremlin that is constantly online however this does not always mean my social battery works. Around quarantine was the first time my self esteem was truly broken, someone who i held dear said many mean things and honestly just slagged off about me behind my back. so whilst i am over it approaching people first is just a little hard for me especially behind a screen as i can never truly tell what their reaction might be. Moreover, I simply am a busy person, i very strongly focus on my academics which is why i have a strange schedule and i'll usually check my mutuals blog check out some cool stuff and leave. it's in my bio that im always free to interact if you just send me your ocs or something that you would like me to check out; because if anything i love about this fandom is the never ending fountain of ingenious ideas. I eat that shit up so quickly.

second off i'm not quite sure what you mean when you are referencing a hierarchy but i am assuming how certain blogs are a lot more popular than other which simply means they get more interaction. To put it into perspective if i am a little bakery that sells to 30 customers with a 10 percent success rate i am selling three items. however if my friend over the street at the jewellery stall has 80 loyal customers with a 10 percent success rate they're selling 8 items.

if that makes sense and obviously loyal customers, reblog which gets more interactions which simply just means your content reaches more people.

don't let this dishearten you at all i promise, literally everyone in this fandom produces such high quality lovely work, the main thing is about actually enjoying what you are doing. many people struggle as an artist whether it be writing or drawing content is something we make for ourselves before anyone else is a mindset that i believe. it has literally saved me so much.

also most people here are darlings, just talking to each other you can feel how supportive they are of u i promise, i think sometimes we put people on pedestals but at the end of the day they're just another person who loves the same media as you.

finally, the most important bit. is that we are a fandom? ironically, we make better content than canon has ever made but i think that always makes us forget we are still fanon. we are allowed to make up different aus, endings, ships and it would still be just as amazing. you do not have to follow a certain someones footsteps because your creativity is not their. you big beautiful brain is yours, and will always be yours.

ask closest friend on here @yui--komori, god i love her and all of her ideas and we scream at each other about different hcs all the time that maybe the other has never even envisioned. however sometimes we will have literally the same ideas, and sometimes the idea is exactly the same but the execution and those little special details are different and that is so valid. Because it is yours it does not have to conform to other peoples ideals

#diabolik lovers #diahell #yui komori #reiji sakamaki #ayato sakamaki #shu sakamaki #diabolik lovers oc #diabolik lovers headcanon #headcanons #laito sakamaki #kanato sakamaki #sakamaki family #for all of you #mutuals #and my beloved stalkers #and my followers #and u anon #literally #we're all conteibuting no reason to put yourself down #and always reblog your own stuff #you cannot control how tumblr gives you an audience #but your mates will always support you

[marnz]

For the fic asks 👀🤗🤲 :)

hi fey!! thank you 💜

👀 Tell me about an up and coming wip please! wow thank you for asking. but the truth is, oh my god...i really am writing a teen wolf fanfic in the year of our lord 2022. it's hurt/comfort and it takes place 8 years after canon. stiles is in law school in seattle and comes across an injured, full wolf shift derek who has apparently traveled 300+ miles to him acting only on instinct?? featuring: bed sharing. one of my fav hikes. mutual pining. a restaurant dish called Straight Up Bitch. awkward conversations about past trauma and things you do as a teenager and then regret as an adult. just your usual! original work wise I'm still working on the Captain Swash book, and i've realized it's more like a western but with sailboats.

🤗 What advice would you give to new fanfic writers that are just getting started? ah great question! I would strongly recommend reading a wide variety of things (different genres, poetry, prose, creative nonfiction, etc) to develop your own style. Try to stretch your writing muscles prose wise, structure wise, pacing, plot, etc. Read all the meta about your character/fandom of choice you can. Don't feel obligated to follow popular trends or fanon, try to cultivate your own understanding of the character. And at the end of the day write the fic or thing you want to see most in the world, because other people really want to see it too.

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

have this snippet of a previous Captain Swash draft

Had she fought for this land? For so long Swash had felt violently apart from the rest of the world, and yes, she had run, had fled, unfit for human society, unable to remain. She had gone to the coast because she had wanted to see things outside of herself, be outside of herself, there was a whole world out there living and dying and decaying and she could see it all. She had seen improbable things; a moose gliding smoothly beneath the ocean’s tides; black and white whales snapping up salmon; birds mixed with sudden summer rain, like silver fire in the sky. But not everyone loved it; how many times had she gone out in a gale to pilot ships, only to have the sailors curse the raging sky, the wind and the rain? It is almost alive, Swash had wanted to say, thunder booming like a heartbeat, and she had meant I am almost alive; here, in a place desolate, implacably grey and green, eroded, entropic, all of it.

But had she fought for it? For the glaciers’ right to make the world? 

Swash looked out from the balcony, from Vena to the glittering Maggander below, and green Drumlin beyond, and felt tears sting her eyes. When the world broke and dusk grew too long, the sun swallowing itself and all around it, when her bones were a memory, when those memories split like atoms and died along with all light and heat, when the universe became still and dark, she would be gone and not even her mistakes would remain. And you could not fight for that–you did not need to–it was inevitable. Was there a way to take a life and justify it on the bedrock of your reality?

The truth was, she had not fought for anything. Glory was a lie, power was a lie, Riparia was a lie, a lie that consumed, a lie that was never fed, but ate, and ate, and ate. Or maybe she had fought for something intangible and fragmented as fire; childhood was like that; full of things hovering unsaid, and your way of seeing the world was a ghost overlaying reality. And Swash had been such a stupid child; she had questioned nothing–not the despair, not the choked off sentences, not the need for war, not the loss of history, not the woman erasing and effacing and manufacturing that loss–Aviss was like a glacier, making the world–and then came the Front, came the cavalry, came her childish hopes and dreams melting, dissolving, the wood of her shield liquid, the metal of her sword frayed fire in her hand, and the whole world warped, warped, warped, as the sun shone overhead.

#answered #fey-dancer #captain swash #sorry about the punctuation abuse here :)

[risingsouls]

[also do GoChi, bc I'm curious]

I'mma Talk About Ships || Open!

Whether I ship it or not: While it has it's issues, I'm okay with GoChi. It's by no means my favorite DB ship, and might be second least favorite behind Vegebul, but it's tolerable.

Why I ship it or not: In short, I can see it working between them despite the...really stupid beginning of their relationship. I can see them developing real love and admiration for each other as they build their lives and family. the bad parts of this relationship come in from writers that hate women and apparently just hate ChiChi.

My opinion on their canon potential (chemistry, canon interactions, etc): As I said, I think they make a strong couple. Maybe not completely the most traditional looking one with Goku being Goku, but he would ABSOLUTELY put in the effort to make ChiChi and his kids happy (and he does! we see it! time and time again!). And while I wish ChiChi was written better, she adores Goku, faults and all. And she gets a bigger pass than Bulma with her nagging about his training because she didn't know he was an alien when she met and married him. however, canon usually does them pretty dirty. Especially in Super where ChiChi is basically nonexistent.

My opinion on fanon interpretations/fandom around it (Favorite widespread hcs, pet-peeves, etc): I think most fan interpretations are pretty okay? A lot of cute art out there, I know that. I don't like the whole "ChiChi is abusive to Goku" shit that is/was popular. I get where they're coming from, but again, I think that's the writers showing they can't write relationships or women and then dumb fans pick that up. I don't see TOO much GoChi stuff because I don't look it up usually nor does it pop up randomly in tags I follow often, but I think the fan content does okay with this from what I've seen. Now the fandom at large? They're awful. They hate ChiChi as much as the writers, and grossly try to ship him with Caulifla and cucking ChiChi. Shit's nasty.

#.:ask:. #.:ooc:. #earthforsaken

[dreamhot]

Signed up for wattpad in 2014 flash forward to last year and their data breach put my email on the dark web and someone tried to scam me lol

oh we love ourselves a good data breach ... i've found my old passwords on sites that track that sort of shit but luckily i've never gotten into any sort of trouble (save for my first neopets account getting shut down but that was my own dumbass fault for falling for a scammer loool)

gonna answer the other fanfic asks under a cut

Anonymous asked: I remember reading Hermione x Ron fanfics on deviant art when I was like 12 :/ also used to read Percy Jackson fics on Wattpad but we don’t talk about that 🤡

re: the last point - you and dream both, pal

Anonymous asked: its kinda funny for me to think about, i got into fanfic by reading mcyter fics (shout out team crafted). they were reader insert and not shipping but i really have come full circle

when i was into rtah, there was def some fic centred around let's play minecraft, but . i was reading the shipping stuff Oops

Anonymous asked: my first fanfiction experience was in 2014? In YOUTUBE. there were channels that made videos reading fanfictions they've got god knows where and if they were multichapter they would usually upload twice a week or something. Now that I think about it it was weird af cause istg the voices reading couldn't have had more than 15/16 years old and they read some filthy stuff sometimes. I can't even imagine reading shut outloud, let alone RECORD MYSELF DOING IT

yeah like i was def too young to be writing some of the fic i did at like, 16/7, but . that was also an era in which people weren't really disclosing their ages anyway lol BUT PUTTING YOUR VOICE TO IT ...? that's a level of bravery i can't even fathom

Anonymous asked: possibly my first fanfiction experience that i can remember was discovering that the avatar the last airbender wiki had a closely linked sister wiki for fanfic content and i dived into that. it must have been like… 2010/11? I knew about ffnet around the same time thanks to my brother but i’m not sure which actually was in my life first. anyway shoutout to avatar fanon wiki

fanon wikis are so fascinating like either they're enormously helpful and point out a lot of cool content Or they're just ill-kept messes of drama. always seems to be one or the other lmao

Anonymous asked: if we're sharing our fanfic experiences, i will say i used fanfic.net, ao3, wattpad, devientart, and quotev, and fanfiction.net has a special place in my heart. its where ot3s, brotps, lemons, using hate comments as fuel to bake cookies, disclaimers about not owning characters, a/n: breaks in the middle of the story, and songfics with the lyrics taking up half the word count really thrived. times were simpler back then

STOPPP NOT THE A/N BREAKS ... you'd be reading a fic and then it suddenly breaks into a fuckin roleplay dialogue between the author and the characters like WHAT'S GOING ON HERE !! i remember when ff.net purged all the songfic etc and how fucking mad ppl were cos they literally just . deleted shit without warning. they were truly merciless back then

Anonymous asked: my experience with fic platforms is kinda weird because i'm definitely in the "too young to have used ffn regularly" demographic but because english is not my first language and my first fandom was full of people who in general were 10+ years older than me (because after my brother taught me how to pirate stuff i ended up getting into 90s anime), the first fic i ever encountered was in ffn and wattpad became popular and easily accessible to me not long after, so for a while those were my two sites until i became fluent enough in english to engage fandom and moved from there to ao3 without struggling with the lack of content in a language i could read. it's funny because whenever older people talk about the youth (tm) not knowing how things were before ao3 it makes me feel old lmao

that's interesting tho :0 see, the thing is that wattpad and ff.net are still in USE, so it's completely possible that ppl were (or are?) using them while others used ao3 - though it blows my mind why anyone would CHOOSE to use ff.net in the year of our lord 2022

#smile.ask #beedreamss #anon #long post #<- under tha cut

[echoing-oursong]

I absolutely hate how in all of Steve's ships, he always gets the short end of the stick, canon, and fanon alike. Like Steve canonically just wants to be loved. It's shown how much he desires it and how much love he has to give towards his partners (like in s2 where he wanted to build his life around Nancy). And yet people take him and put him into borderline abusive situations, where he constantly gets belittled or made fun of. His dreams of having a big family are laughed at and not taken seriously, when his entire character in ST revolves around love and found family. I'm just so sick of it. Nobody in fanon truly has Steve's back when he gets into relationships. Robin acts ooc in favor of her own relationship or sides with Eddie idk why.

Steddie truly is H//rringrove 2.0 it's annoying bc it could have had potential.

Stonathan after s2 doesn't make much sense either. Like from both povs. Jonathan still doesn't like Steve, which fine he doesn’t have to take his apology in s1. He hates what Steve stands for (he's judging him based on popularity) and for being Nancy's ex. Steve feels neutral towards him after s1, but then Jonathan willingly cheated with Nancy. I doubt he wants to date him after that. They are not friends, and the basis of their relationship would be Nancy bc they are both romantically involved with her, which isn't a strong enough foundation imo. I know they are aus where none of that happens, but I can't really look past it. Maybe I lack creativity and imagination.

Anyway, I don't ship Steve with anyone because the fandom doesn't get him and puts him into the worst situations. I only ship him with my very own OC, who would kill anyone with Robin if they would disrespect him in the way the fandom does lmao. But yeah, I usually don't ever read any shipping fics bc they are usually ooc. I only love to read Stobin fics or any fics with the kids and his sibling relationships with them.

ngl steve ships for the fandom are just ‘how much can we shit on steve and show how we have an incredible bias and show how much we hate him’. like that’s the vibes i’m getting all the time. and yeah it’s insane how steve ships are just like you said where steve gets the short end of the stick. honestly people are just allergic to giving steve what he wants because they hate him! lmaooo steve antis want to shit on us saying that ‘wow they over exaggerate the hate steve gets’ I PROMISE YOU WE ARENT BECAUSE WHENEVER I TRY TO SEARCH FOR STEVE CONTENT ITS JUST ABOUT STEVE BEING IN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS OR WORSHIPPING THE GROUND HIS PARTNER WALKS ON! i just want steve to be loved and fanon wont even let him be loved by his besties either 😭😭😭😭 him being with his own best friends in canon is just ‘okay how much can we verbally abuse steve and constantly dismiss his own boundaries’. honestly how people react with robin and steve being best friends makes me the most mad because robin in fics/headcanons doesn’t even act like a best friends to steve. it’s to the point where i want to yell at steve to drop her as a friend with how fanon portrays their friendship

legit steddie did have a lot of potential and then that got ruined hardcore

honestly i never understood stonathan even in season 1! especially because so many jonathan stan’s were (and still are) so anti steve! which genuinely makes shit sense like why do you want your favorite character with another character that you absolutely hate? but yes from both sides it makes no sense whatsover for them to be together. legit jonathan at murray’s place brings up steve and then ignores the fact that he himself talked about steve. also ps i’m so sick of people calling that not cheating THEY CHEATED! just own up to it and fuck off. honestly i can’t look it past either in aus where it doesn’t happen. honestly steve and jonathan are so different to me that i can’t see them working past two weeks (same as how i see ronance)

same i don’t ship steve with anyone! unless it’s an oc that i create! but yeah i just can’t see steve with anyone in canon. i do read sometimes oc x steve focs but also half the time they’re just like ‘okay steve constantly has to apologize for how he was in high school’ which liek steve was just minding his own business - do we have to have multiple fics where nancy and jonathan apologize to people 24/7 for being in their own bubble? actually i need that now - if it happens to steve we should also make that happen for every single main character

#stranger things #steve harrington #answered asks #thanks 😊

[lovebecomeshim]

hello! your zutara posting today has finally motivated me to ask this question because I came to atla very late(last year, to be specific) and I Love It Very Much but am 1000% out of the loop as far as why what remains of fandom (at least that I've seen among my friends) is so very strongly zutara. I'm not opposed to it per se I just don't really know what has driven it to apparently be such a popular ship? can you help me understand and maybe convert me a little bit?

Hey!! Your ICON! :D I can try but I’m not sure how coherent I’ll be; however I AM sure someone a lot more competent will be willing to add to this. Either way, I’m glad you asked because my plan was to drag down as many people as possible with me.

*smacks the hood of zutara* this baby can fit so much mutual love and support!

This got so long, I’m so sorry. I don’t know how to put it under a cut on mobile and it already got deleted once so I’m scared to mess with it lol. Moving on.

I’m gonna start this with a disclaimer that im on mobile so formatting is tricky and I’m also really new to atla in that I only completed my first watch through in like 2019??? So some of my info is all just based on what I’ve picked up from Discourse 👀 so anyway the sparknotes version: zutara was wildly popular from the beginning. To the point where the atla crew internally disagreed on which ship should be endgame. (Ex. Bryke [showrunners] asked the writers to rewrite The Southern Raiders to make Zuko seem less ideal for Katara than Aang [which failed, depending on who you ask]; the animation team purposefully created a visual parrallel between Oma and Shu in the Cave of Two Lovers and Zuko and Katara in the catacombs under Ba Sing Se in the Crossroads of Destiny; etc.)

The ship was popular enough that Bryke actually chose to display zk fanart at a con for the sole purpose of mocking the fans, but that’s neither here nor there. The entire episode Ember Island Players, while a love letter to/parody of the whole show, was an opportunity to address zutara’s viability as a canon pairing (while, again, mocking zutaras for romanticizing that catacombs scene). Point is! It’s always been popular but with it not being endgame, there’s got to be something that’s given it staying power.

And that’s honestly got to do with three things: their dynamic, thematic cohesion, and potential.

(You know what... you know what, it’s four things. The fourth is they’re so aesthetically pleasing together and individually. Like, they’re just good looking people [specifically when they’re grown but they’re also cute kids] and that absolutely doesn’t hurt) (but it’s not the Point, it’s just nice to point out sometimes)

The dynamic is hard to get into without also looking at the canon pairings, but I think I can do that without unnecessary bashing. It’s just that part of the magic of zutara is really highlighted by what they give to each other that their other relationships don’t.

First off, it’s classic enemies to (would be) lovers. The absolute truest form of it. It’s not too different from how CS started out: a rogue antagonist with a job to do—but no personal vendetta against the future love interest—who is deeply and emotionally invested in his personal storyline (revenge/redemption) with little regard for how it effects other people after his entire life and genuine good nature are marred by suffering, and a fierce warrior girl with a strong moral compass and her own personal investment in stopping him (protect her family and save the world doing it). Obviously frustration and animosity grew between them by the nature of them being on opposing sides, but that just lends itself to the sweetness of their later reconciliation.

The thing is that while they’re wildly different on the surface (he’s a hot-headed prince of a fascist regime who is trying to capture the Avatar to please his father; she’s a nurturing daughter of the chief who is trying to protect and train the Avatar in order to topple his father’s throne) they find out that they have so much more in common both in their experiences and their personalities.

(What follows is an excessive use of the word “both” and I’m sorry about that)(I can edit it. I can do that. That IS an option............)

They both have an innate sense of justice that they are determined to see done (zuko, at the war meeting, sticking up for the Earth Kingdom kid when the guards torment his family, choosing not to steal from the pregnant couple despite his circumstances, abiding by his word to leave the SWT should Aang come willingly, etc.; katara, literally.... at any point). They both have pretty one-track minds at accomplishing certain goals once they’ve put their mind to it, regardless of a lack of support in that endeavor (it goes without saying I guess, but zuko’s entire hunt; katara’s determination to get the earth benders to fight back, her determination to absolutely destroy Pakku until he agrees to teach her, etc.). They both lost their mothers at young ages. Their worlds are war-torn and traumatizing to them both, if in different ways, but that ultimately forces them to grow up too quickly to be wholly independent individuals. They both have issues with their fathers (for WILDLY different reasons, but). They both hold extreme prejudices that they need to learn to overcome (which ties into thematic cohesion)(bit like Lizzie and Darcy in that way but magnified by a million). They’re both extremely emotional and empathetic—which can and often does result in loud outbursts. Katara’s a bit better adjusted and can temper her anger for longer than S1 Zuko can, but they both feel that anger deeply and have no compunctions expressing it (Katara is, usually, more justified, particularly in S1. Again, S1 Zuko is severely maladjusted but at the point when they could’ve feasibly become a couple, he’s so much better off with the way he carries himself). They both struggle with feelings of inferiority in their bending abilities when confronted with prodigal benders like Aang and Azula, but have the work ethic required to double down and become two of the most powerful benders in the three remaining nations. This is a little more minor but it is a parrallel that appeals to some shippers that they both have these alter egos in the Painted Lady (notably fire nation coded) and the Blue Spirit (water tribe coded) that are pretty different from who they are day-to-day and are useful in accomplishing a purpose that they as themselves cannot.

(I’m.... I just realized that this could potentially get very long. Should I have made a slide show with bullet points??????)

Anyway, similar. I know there’s more but there’s literally so much to love about zutara that I’ll drive myself a little crazy trying to compile all the ways they’re similar. (Just gonna say that at this exact moment I went back to add more similarities.... so okay then)

Once they’ve reconciled, we see how all of these things only lend themselves to a deeper intimacy together than they share with literally anyone else. There’s a steady partnership that positions them as the mom/dad of the gaang, while also providing the support necessary to allow the other to not have to carry so much responsibility. A lot of zutaras will point out how zuko is actually depicted doing the more domestic chores that are normally relegated to Katara once he joins the gaang, since the others in the group are two 12-year-olds and sokka. The one that sticks out the most is how he makes tea for the group and then serves them, while Katara is able to just relax with her friends around the fire. Fanon expands upon this a lot to Zuko helping with the laundry or the cooking or whatever else needs doing since he, as a once-refugee, is used to doing his own domestic tasks. Before Zuko joined, Katara was the one mothering everyone, sewing for them, cooking for them, etc. She’s always tending to the needs of the group, and that includes emotionally. She does the emotional labor for the gaang 99% of the time, but when she’s the one falling apart, she’s usually doing it alone and without the comfort that she normally provides for others. Until Zuko. And that’s before they’re even friends.

Which is WHY people romanticize the catacombs of Ba Sing Se so much. Katara is verbally attacking Zuko out of her own righteous anger but also her own prejudice when Zuko, surprisingly, chooses to be vulnerable with her. He’s been on a journey that’s opened his eyes a bit, but he’s never actively chosen to expose the rawest parts of his past to anyone. But for some reason he chooses to do that with Katara of all people. While she’s yelling at him. He sees her humanity, and for once can look past his prejudice and empathize with her. And this time, when she breaks down, she gets to be comforted. Katara normally talks about her mother when she’s trying to explain to someone else that she sees and understands they’re pain, as a form of comfort to them. Here, Zuko uses the exact same tactic. He sees her and he understands. And for zuko? He’s not being shut down. He’s allowed to articulate his pain regarding his mother without being ignored and made to internalize it, and he’s allowed to process how he feels about his scar out loud without being told that he deserved it. And then he lets her touch his scar, something we’ve seen him actively avoid before. He’s completely open to her and she’s completely open to him and all it took was one five minute conversation. She was about to use the little bit of Spirit water that she had, that she was saving for something Important, to heal the scar that still daily causes him pain just because they had, somehow, connected.

Plus there’s the whole parallel to the star-crossed lovers forbidden from one another, a war divides their people—

And then zuko messes up, he regresses, he gets what he wants and he HATES it. And the sense of justice he had as a child has been restored to him against his will and he can’t think of anything he wants to do more than the Right Thing, so he joins team avatar. Before he does that though, we get to see his relationship with Mai, which is where comparison really comes in. And what we see is Zuko, fresh off of his encounter with Katara in the catacombs, trying to be emotionally honest with Mai... and getting shut down and dismissed. Which is just how Mai is and it’s fine, but not for Zuko. Still, he keeps trying, and he keeps getting ignored or scoffed at or yelled at. Which is really a larger symbol for how he doesn’t fit in his old life anymore, but again that’s about thematic cohesion. He tries to articulate his anxieties about returning home, he tries to make romantic gestures, he tries to explain how morally conflicted he’s feeling—and Mai diverts to some kind of physical affection to shut him up and a parting comment that is pretty much always, in essence, “I don’t wanna talk about this.” So they don’t. On the other hand, once zuko and Katara are friends, we see him again emotionally distraught and caught up in his anxieties about facing Iroh, and it’s Katara who comes to him and listens to him and comforts and encourages him.

Similarly, we have Aang clamming up and getting uncomfortable whenever Katara shows any negative emotion, usually resulting in him making excuses or running away. Or, in the case of the Southern Raiders, lecturing her on how she needs to just let go of her anger about her mother’s murder. People have talked this episode to death and usually better than I ever could, so imma... keep it brief. There’s a serious disconnect between Aang and Katara in his ability to empathize with Katara and her needs that has her tamping down her vulnerability and amping up her anger. He tells her that he was able to forgive his people’s genocide and appa’s kidnapping (petnapping? Theft??), which is blatantly not true but also not an entirely equal parrallel to Katara’s situation, and continues making these little remarks throughout the episode. But it’s Zuko that Katara opens up to. It’s with him that she’s able to talk about the most traumatic day of her life, and it’s with him that she’s able to get the closure she needs, cementing their bond as friends and partners. This disagreement between Aang and Katara is then... never resolved. They just never bring it up and hear what the other is saying.

There’s a fic called The Portraits of Ember Island that has a line that so completely sums up the heart of the matter for why people love their dynamic. For context, zuko has woken up early to help Katara with the cooking and they spend the whole time just letting one another talk, and zuko stops to ask why she always just lets him talk. And so she stops to ask why he’s always helping, and it goes as follows:

There’s just... so much mutual support! Trust! Intimacy!! And it just continues like that from the Southern Raiders on, listening to each other, advising each other, watching each other’s backs! And then! Literally saving each other’s lives!! I will never be over the last Agni kai. Not ever. Zuko may have been willing to jump in front of lightning for anyone, but he actually did it for Katara. And in a show, that’s the thing that really matters. It’s a fulfilled trope usually exclusively applied to romantic pairings, and it ended up applying to Zuko and Katara. And then she ran out into the middle of a fight with tunnel vision just to get to him.

Also!! Also Zuko pushing Katara out of the way of the falling rocks at the Western Air Temple!! And Katara catching him as he fell from the war balloon that he fought Azula on!! Before they’re even getting along, they’re the ones reaching for each other. They come to this place of equal ground, as partners, who watch each other’s backs, call each other out but still listen attentively and understand, and provide the support that the other has been sorely lacking up until they knew each other (whether that be from lack of effort or lack of understanding from others, or an unwillingness to accept it for themselves).

Then, trailing along under the surface of this, we see the themes of the show totally embodied by Zuko and Katara as individuals and in their relationship to one another. There’s a YouTuber, sneezyreviews, who has a, like, 2-hour explanation on why she not only loves zutara but also believes that their endgame would’ve actually elevated the writing of atla to new levels particularly because of thematic cohesion and resolved character arcs. It’s the zutara dissertation I never knew I needed, and it’s funny and eloquent and effective, so I’m just going to sum up her section on thematic cohesion to the best of my abilities and then link it for whenever you have the time. And I HIGHLY recommend it, especially if you want a full understanding of what makes zutara so great and gives it such longevity.

Guru pathik has a line that goes something like this: separation is an illusion; things that seem different are just two parts of the same whole. Iroh also tells Zuko something similar: balance and strength are achieved when the different nations come together and influence one another and celebrate what makes them each unique. And this lesson is a massive central arc that both Zuko and Katara go through, moving past a black-and-white, good guys-vs-bad guys, us-vs-them mentality and into a greyer, more nuanced view of the world. Zuko sees the fire nation from an entirely new perspective and while he still loves and hopes for his nations future, he surrenders his blind loyalty to them in exchange for an unflinching loyalty to peace and love. Katara too had to come to terms with the fact that cruel people exist in the earth kingdom and water tribes, while some fire nation citizens are just regular, kind people who also need and deserve to have someone speak on their behalf. And this is honed in directly on how they view each other. They grow in their individual journeys to be open to the humanity in the other and then, once they’ve found that, they’re able to grow more in compassion for others in a beautiful feedback loop. And this is all matched in the symbolism repeatedly and intentionally associated with them in canon: sun and moon, fire and water, yin and yang, Oma and Shu who found love despite their warring nations. Their individual arcs are completed in each other and complement the themes of atla beautifully.

The canon pairs... just don’t. Which, again, is fine. But the very things that give atla longevity and popularity are anchored in zutara. Kat@ang doesn’t accomplish this. They’re... nice. Sweet. Especially when you erase a good portion of their interactions in S3. It could’ve been just a sweet love story. (Personally, the dynamic between toph and aang accomplish the same thing that zutara does, with complementary personalities that fulfill the theme of opposites blending in harmony) M@iko, on the other hand, is less sweet but I think wasn’t even supposed to last. Zuko’s relationship with Mai seems to represent his relationship with his old life as a whole. He can’t be emotionally vulnerable, he’s goaded into abusing his privileges, his agency and opinions aren’t respected. They just don’t have common ground with which to discuss anything that matters, so they don’t. As far as themes, the relationship doesn’t fit with atla. It’s zuko returning to and sticking with what is (on the surface) like him, what’s expected. Fire nation with fire nation. Fluid water bender with the flexible air bender. Like with like, separated from what is different and challenging and complementary.

And all of these things combined of course lead to the potential for the ship. I don’t know how familiar you are with the post-atla canon but... well, miss “I will never turn my back on people who need me”, miss “I don’t want to heal! I want to fight!” ends up living quietly in the SWT as a designated healer who turns a blind eye to the water tribe civil war happening right outside her front door. Which can be fine! People change! Some people just wanna stay inside. I just wanna stay inside! But the potential future for zutara is so much more satisfying, with Katara becoming the most unconventional Fire Lady the uppity old cads who are stuck on the old ways have ever seen. Fanon has her serving as a voice for the other nations within a kingdom at the point of its biggest political upheaval, as a confidante to Zuko who can actually help him while he’s trying to figure out how to move forward and make reparations. They have the opportunity, together, to accomplish what they both have set on their hearts to fight for: positive change that lends itself to harmony and balance. And the steambabies! A popular headcanon is that their firstborn daughter, the crown princess, is actually a waterbender, which causes such an uproar among the people who are adamantly clinging to the old ways. It’s just a future full of potential to be forces for good together, full of trust, intimacy, joy. The exact era of peace and love and balance that zuko announces that he intends to ring in with the start of his reign as Fire Lord is, again, magnified by the very personal zutara relationship. And we love to see it.

tl;dr zutara isn’t for everyone. Some people just don’t vibe with it. Some are nostalgic. Some love the canon they grew up with. Some have been disappointed for years. Some just see themselves in other characters and want their happiness instead. Whatever the reason, that’s fine. But for me, I love the way these two, from the moment they give each other a fair chance, are able to lower their walls and prejudices to see the other for the kindred spirits they are. They see each other’s humanity, and their response is to pour out love and support and compassion. I love that they’re a power couple in battle. I love the symbolism and, honestly, soulmatism that colors their every interaction. I love that they embody the whole storyline of atla in their relationship and how it develops, which is notably why their seasonal arcs always culminate in each finale with how they relate to one another. I love that zuko adopting a waterbending move is what actually saves his life and then katara’s. I love the chemistry! And I love the future they could’ve had, instead of the ones they were given.

So, in conclusion: I just think they’re neat and I hope you do too, at least a little bit. Even if it’s just respectfully from a disinterested distance cause you do you. And now here is the video I mentioned. I’m sorry this post got so long and then I gave you an even longer homework assignment, but I can’t recommend it enough. She says it all better than I can.

#zutara #atla #zutara rant #like really the way the canon relationships were written throughout s3 #it would’ve been more believable for zutara to happen #or at least be hinted at #all of the major issues presented in those relationship were dug up extensively and then... never resolved #and then they just slapped some kisses on a screen and said ‘there all better’ #and we just kinda had to say ‘oh ok guess it’s all better then’ #this got long I’m sorry #I wrote it all out and then tumblr ate 2/3 of it #which is why it took so long #and what I’ve written now doesn’t even match what I had before #because there’s too much to say about why I love zutara #and the stuff I left out the first time is what came out this time #rip to my original thoughts but this post is different #anyway that’s why this took so long #and I should’ve just made a PowerPoint... #I can do that too if you’d rather not read all of this lol #I won’t be offended #this is incoherent #Alia rambles uselessly #also hoping this doesn’t end up in any wrong tags because I don’t wanna step on toes lol #it’s not anti!! it’s just critical #in a compare/contrast way #I can pinpoint the moment when I started trying to rewrite my points from memory #because everything gets shorter and more succinct #like... I really said all that??? sounds fake and I don’t remember it anyway so here’s the condensed version #with no!! smooth!!! transitions!!!! #also why am I so lazy with proper grammar over text