#shipping is ok imo but we shippers have to be honest about what we are

[wenellyb]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I feel that people who say stuff like this are straight up lying? Or is there some important piece of information I'm missing?

It's unbelievable to me that some people would like that non-canon ships like Stucky or any other non-canon ships paved the way for representation in modern media. Unbelievable.

Destiel, maybe, because of how big the fandom is/was but even Supernatural and even Destiel started out small and got popular because of the fandom and the ship(s).

I feel like people who saying they started shipping non-canon couples because their wasn't any LGBT representation in the media at the time aren't being genuine. I say that because before joining Tumblr, I didn't even know shipping non-canon couples was a thing (I had heard of Destiel, but it was more of a concept to me, even though I unironically watched SPN).

I feel that was they mean is that there wasn't any representation in popular shows or maybe they mean they weren't enough main characters. But otherwise there was!!!

These are just the one I can think of on the top of my head, but there are much more and there is en more if you go outside of the US. And these are just the shows.

If we add the movies... well!!!

You want romance with a Happy Ending?

You want Murder Mystery?

You want Drama?

There are so many many more and, yes these weren't blockbusters but it's not "no représentation and Stucky and Destiel were the only options"

Grey's Anatomy started out at the exact same time as Supernatural and now has over a dozen canon LGBT characters and half of them are/were main characters (Callie, Arizona, Amelia, Teddy, Yasuda, Helm)

When I joined Tumblr, I never even for a minute thought shipping was about representation or activism because there were so many shows and movies I knew but they were barely talked about on here.

Not criticizing ships by any means but I feel like people are trying to pretend that shipping is something it isn't.

In my humble opinion, non-canon ships were never about representation. Shipping was just shipping

I wasn't on Tumblr at the time, but I was on Youtube (old school) and to me, the people who were doing edits of the canon ships, in shows and movies were the real heroes.

Some people might say : "but those characters are side characters or weren't in major blockbusters/popular shows".

But fandoms could have decided to make them more popular if they wanted. Because believe it or not, Supernatural was a niche show at the beginning and I don't think it would have been as popular or gotten as many seasons without the shippers. They chose to make the non-canon couple (at the time) popular. So the fans could have done the same with shows that have canon LGBT characters But they didn't, they focused on non-canon couples.

I have no problem with shipping non-canon couples at all, I do it too, but I'm really surprised by people who want to make it seem like it's some kind of activism... It's not.

And I know there wasn't enough representation that's true, but why focus your energy on shows with absolutely no canon LGBT characters and pretend it's activism??

You guys could have had Noah's arc or Hit the Floor renewed and you focused your energy on Marvel characters.

And some people will say they ship Destiel anyway because they want fantasy and paranormal... Well does nobody remember Dante's Cove? Was it a fever dream😂? I admit the writing was bad, but have you seen the writing in Supernatural (I say this as a SPN fan)???

And I know some people will say they ship Marvel characters because they have a bigger audience and there were no canon Queer characters in blockbusters, but I feel like that a lie too because when there were indeed Queer characters in those blockbusters, they were ignored as well. Like in the Eternals.

Fandoms can be so powerful when they want to...they can make or break a movie, so acting like the focus on non canon couples was the only option surprises me.

Shipping is just about shipping. It's a hobby.

Stucky or any non-canon Marvel ship isn't "History", it's just a ship.

Last exemple: Let's take a look at 2 popular couples from the same franchise: 9-1-1 and 911: Lone Star. Only one of the couples in canon, but Can you Guess which one is more popular on Ao3 and on Tumblr ?

The non-canon couple!

Almost 3 Times as much fics for Buddie than TK x Carlos who are an actualcouple and even got married!

Shipping non-canon couples isn't about representation but about finding a story to fantasize about, which isn't bad itself but it's bad when you pretend shipping is something it isn't?

TL:DR: Shipping non-canon couples isn't activism imo.

I would be happy to hear tour thoughts because as I said, I only joined Tumblr later so I don't have all the info.

#anti stucky #not really anti but for filtering purposes and save people who don't want to read long rants in their tags #😂 #anti destiel #these are ships that I like #anti buddie #no hate to that ship... I love it it's just for the same reasons as before #tk x carlos #shipping is ok imo but we shippers have to be honest about what we are #hit the floor #noah's arc #dante's cove was probably a fever dream😭😭😭 #😂😂😂 #as always I'm open for discussion

[redteabaron]

Different anon… Here is the thing though, Drogo/Dany isn’t a parallel to sansan. People who make that comparison either lack severe reading comprehension, which is not surprising for this fandom, or they want to use it to validate sansan. (Tyrion was the older guy Sansa was forced to marry. Dany and Sansa have opposite journeys and their marriages are a part of that.) But sansan’s mirror is Jorah/Dany. Book!Jorah is an older guy who has a creepy obsession with a teenage girl. He dumps his trauma on her, he projects onto her. But he is also her advisor, her confidante early on, his protector. There are also the same BaTB elements sansans love to talk about. She even refers to him as her bear. But he was lusting after her ever since they met and then he assaulted her. He forced himself on her. She is uncomfortable with his actions, but she doesn’t possess the necessary language and she doesn’t understand consent (we know this because of how she frames her relationship with Drogo but also how she expected Lhazareen women to be ok, even be thankful for being married to their rapists, and her dubcon relationship with Irri) so she recontextualize what happened and chastise Jorah for kissing her not because she is a teenager and he shouldn't and she didn’t consent to but because she is his Queen. That's the language she has, so she expresses her discontent, disapproval, rejection with that. Sandor was verbally, psychologically, physically abusive to Sansa but he also occasionally protected her in King’s Landing. He lusted after her, made sexually inappropriate comments to an 11 year old child but he was also the only one in KL to have honest conversations with her. Then he assaulted her, held her at knife point. She was afraid of him kissing her, killing her, she had nightmare about the assault which she clearly registered as a sexual one despite what his fans claim his intentions were. Sansa has a habit of romanticizing/redefining these things. Sansa thinks Arys Oakheart was preferable, that he was kind because he beat her less hard than the other Kingsguard. She remembers Tyrion as someone who were kind to her, someone better than Joffrey even though he molested her and she had him in her nightmares too. She separates Littlefinger and Petyr in her mind because just like with the other men before him the thought of her sometimes-protector at the same time being her abuser is too much for her. Just like Dany she recontextualizes what the Hound did to her and turns the assault into a song to cope with it.

These two pairings has the same dynamic, the difference is fandom’s response to it. (The slight differences are that Dany had actual amiable feelings for Jorah -not romantic love or sexual feelings but friendly, sisterly love for him- and she as a Queen had a lot more agency than Sansa as a prisoner had. She isn't as powerless as Sansa, she could have easily banished him, punished him, even ordered his death.) But no one in fandom writes essay after essay why and how could and should Jorah and Dany end up together. It’s an outrageous suggestion. Dany is a main character, she is the heroine. She is a Queen. Why should she ever end up with someone as lowly as Jorah? Someone as old, as ugly as Jorah? But Sansa, meh she is not an important character. And she needs to be punished, first because she was a child making childish mistakes. Secondly, she is shallow, she refused to be raped by her older, ugly husband. So she needs to end up with an older ugly guy to humble her. Even when the author expressed his distaste of the trope of a noble girl running away with a lowly guy in medieval stories, nah that doesn’t matter here. Sansa being of high nobility, a princess won’t have any factor at all who she’s gonna end up with. They had to keep assuring themselves that she is not a main character so she could even end up with a villainous character, that she is not a Stark so she could end up with people who hurt/fight against her family. The hypocrisy of this fandom, and their selective reading is most clear when it comes to these two “couples”. Almost all sansans (whether it is the actual shippers or those who think it’ll happen because well it’s Sansa what else she’s gonna do besides being a reward bride for some hideous guy) hate Jorah/Dany (as they should) while trying to justify how and why Sansa should end up with the hound. Let's forget the abuse and pedophile, let's assume those never happened, even then it makes no sense. There is not a narratively satisfying way, a logical reason how Sansa could be with Sandor. But they ignore all that because it doesn't fit in with their vision, with their interpretation of the books and characters. Because admitting Sansa is a main character and more than a reward for their pedo fave has a ripple affect, it challenges all their theories, they all crumble. And they just can't let go of their 2 decades old theories, they just have to be right, they must be right. That's why they all took the show's ending as a personal offense, especially the QiTN Sansa. I just can't wait for the books!

Yeah, agreed. jorah and sandor are mirrors of each other. I mean I hope they both die without any glory or honor, personally. I don't really care if they have sacrificial deaths for the greater good - or whatever framing the show had intended - jorah and sandor were also whitewashed and made more pitiable/likeable.

Whenever dany x dr*go is used to validate literally ANY pairing, I am suspish. In particular when we acknowledge that dany absolutely couldn't consent - she was 13 iirc - and was sold off by her abusive brother to a man twice her age, but Sansa reimagining her trauma about Sandor's assault to something less traumatic is considered being hateful to Sandor because he's unattractive. (And I never really listen whenever ppl give me shit or deny it was assault; pertaining to my job, I'm pretty fucking aware what assault or intention-to-assault looks like, and I think most ppl do to, they just seem to lose awareness when it comes to their ships or certain characters).

I think it has to do with Sansa being the archetypal "Pretty Popular Girl" - the one who like feminine things, sort of fussy, likes feminine colors and just in general is feminine. She seems to remind people of the classic mean popular girl we saw popularized in 1990s-2000s high school movies - the one who gets her comeuppance in the end when the non-feminine girl somehow triumphs in whatever way, or she's the one who learns her lesson and stops being quite so feminine, or hooks up with a most-popular guy. The Mean/Pretty Popular girl has to be humbled in some fashion. Fans who don't like her, tend to view this as a way for her to pay for the error of her ways.

Like being a prisoner of war. Or not wanting to fuck tyrion. Or not wanting to run away with sandor.

I mean...all of asoiaf, beyond the politics and magic, is all about trauma and the human response to it - which is varied and depends on circumstances, personalities, and a lot of other things. One of the more vile things GOT did was whitewash jorah and tyrion the way they did imo. Jorah was a predator, circling Dany, regardless of whether she thought of him fondly, he just happened to not be violent towards her - she cries when he forces a kiss on her. Tyrion was a predator who molested her when he acknowledged she was a child "but he wanted her anyway". I've seen a lot of ppl react more sympathetically towards Dany. I haven't seen much recrimination against dany for refusing him the way we see sansa being hated for not wanting tyrion or sandor, hell, even petyr.

But - Sansa, imo, in the larger or at least circles of the fandom that have been around longer, is a more ideal whipping girl for the outlet a lot of ppl crave. See again the popular girl trope. She can't fight, she has no magical creatures, she is not a Chosen One of any kind. She has her wits and her ability to observe and adapt who has no choice but to navigate survival surrounded by people who have more agency and power than she does. That's it. I guess in a world of amazing abilities and magic and warfare, this is very boring, particularly when she doesn't weaponize her femininity or sexuality, where she's beautiful without being dangerous or magical or erotic. And I guess ppl feel that because of that, she needs to be punished for not being as extraordinary as she should be, OR, because she was the "Mean Popular Girl" (she wasn't) she must be humbled, and the ones to do it are the ones she refuses.

It's really delicious knowing they don't get "to have her" 🤢. Hopefully they just both fuck off to the ends of the world or die, idc they deserve zero thought.

#anti jorah #anti sandor #anti tyrion #anti Petyr #asoiaf #anti daenerys targaryen

[distinguishedstudentcat]

Hi! I am a Sessrin shipper and this is a pro Sessrin blog.

LOOK.

I completely understand if you don't like Sessrin. Maybe you find it uncomfortable, or don't like the dynamics. Perhaps you, when watching Inuyasha, perceived their relationship as parent-child and thus the thought of them together is disgusting to you. Or you feel the age gap is too big. In other words, you find the relationship is predatory, pedophiliac/grooming, or downright non-consensual.

Do I agree with you? No. But I'm not going to say you are definitively wrong and I am right. Your thoughts and feelings are valid, and of course you would feel wronged by the choice Sunrise has made by making Sessrin canon. Heck even I am a little miffed by the fact that romantic relationship wise, not much development was shown on screen for Sessrin. (Rin still calling him Sesshomaru-sama was a... Choice 🥴, I would have really preferred if she were allowed to ditch that honorific to make it clear they are equals to reduce the perception that there is a power imbalance between them but ah well...)

Imma be brutally honest here. Yashahime is very meh. It's not bad, but it's nothing to shout about, and it definitely is riding on the coat tails of Inuyasha's popularity. The writing is... Average IMO. But that's a spiel for another day.

But what's NOT OK??? Well antis INSISTING that Sessrin shippers are pedophiles and support grooming. Just as your opinions are valid, how we wish to perceive this ship is too, and we happen to like it, thank you very much. So please, practice don't like don't read. Stop attacking actual people over a fictional ship. ❤

P.s. Please have the decency to tag appropriately. As the tag might suggest, the #sessrin is for Sessrin shippers, so if you could be so kind, and wish to criticize/comment negatively on the ship, please tag it #anti sessrin instead. 😉 I'm sure we all understand the woes of searching for something and getting the literal opposite shoved in our face instead. 😅

This is NOT to call out anyone and hey feel free to call me out if I pulled a dumb dumb and worded something badly so I can fix it and apologize! 😊

#hanyo no yashahime #sessrin canon #princess half demon #hanyou no yashahime #hanyo no yashahime spoilers #sessrin #yashahime spoilers #inuyasha #sessrin antis #anti sessrin

[favoniuscodex]

ask responses

ok so there’s like a quadrillion anti-k*eluc things in my inbox (like every time this topic comes up)

yea these all shit on k*eluc but if you like that ship idk why you’re here cw: death threat mention (NO ACTUAL THREATS), typical k*eluc bullshit

anon said:  if we're talking about incest, I've seen some shit in this fandom k*eluc could not compare. I wish there was a way to block people/tags in ao3... everyday I roll my eyes so hard to go blind and never see some of the shit in ao3 again

i like... dont want to shame people for their interests because ultimately fanfiction is a way to get some like... weird shit outta your system without harming anyone but like... MAN... some of the fics i’ve seen make me wonder if the authors have ever gone outside and touched grass before,,, and im saying this as someone who fantasizes about 2d pixels for fun.

anon said:  The thing about kaeluc, i heard from somewhere that some ppl tend to go overboard with the warnings.. true, that ship is disgusting, but to warning them with death threat/su*cide? They talk about toxicness of kaeluc but without realizing it, they themselves are toxic. I'm not defending kaeluc stans cuz i've had some bad experience with kaeluc stans too. But I wish they realized that block button exist.

i mean, yes. this is basic human decency (blocking people and not harassing them). the internet has always been pretty reactionary to things they don’t like and is pretty toxic as a whole. idc if you dont like something, death threats are never a viable solution. but imma be honest, i’ve never seen that happen when it comes to that ship and therefore i have no time nor energy to devote to yelling at people for it. not my place.

anon said: I've seen some people saying k*eluc was ok in eastern side of the fandom because it is a cultural difference kind of thing. I don't agree with this because like... that means eastern people want to fuck their siblings??? that's a stupid argument. I don't ship it bc it weirds me out but I also don't really care people shipping it since it's just fiction

though this doesn't mean that it's okay to ship them imo. I just try to stay away from conflict

yea as a white person this sounds like some bullshit lie some asian fetishizing white person made up to justify shipping two brothers. additionally diluc is clearly like... germanic/white ancestry so like... is this argument even still valid? anyways that argument just reeks of racism and holds 0 ground. it’s weird as fuck. also anon, its cute that you want to avoid conflict, i wish that was me. i think this ship is overall pretty nasty and i will take sides LMAO

anon said:  “ayo how can we ruin a fandom” *red/blue ship* sounds an awful lot like kl*nce shippers 🦍💨

yea i wasnt even in that fandom and i heard about it which shows how bad it is,,,

always the red and blue shippers ong

anon said: Just a little snippet from what they said because I constantly have to go back to it and laugh about that because it doesn’t take more than a few secons to go on google an be like “are diluc and kaeya brother” to which the big fat answer will be “yes”"…kaeya has basically disowned himself…Either way it’s fine and not incest if that’s the issue!”How do you disown yourself-

d... disowning yourself means you no longer want contact with your family, it doesn’t change the fact that you once viewed them as family.... what the.... FMKLDSMFLMSD,,, that person you were arguing with is WEIRD

anon said: if people want to ship an ice/fire dynamic that badly why not ship chongyun and bennett or something. sighs. why do people have to be Like That

TRUE,,,, true,,,, this is 100% facts and lowkey thats a big brained ship nonnie

anon said: I've just been reading through the asks about a certain *cough* fire/ice *cough* ship and let me also add something. Everytime i search Genshin on Ao3 I have to make sure one of the excluded tags is said said ship so that it cuts down alot and I mean alot so I can see others but at the same time, some good fic has that tag, not really the focus but still has it, which saddens me because I try to avoid it as much as possible. Also any fics on twitter that talks about the individual (either the fire or ice) in said ship I tend to just "nope" and quickly scroll down(unless it's a het ship weirdly enough it's a little calmer) I just wanted some good fluff and someone just had to ruin the good fluff by arguing that the fire/ice ship is superior than the one in the fic. Like I just want GOOD FLUFF 😭 WHY DO YOU HAVE TO RUIN IT?!I FEEL NEUTRAL BACK THEN NOW I AM JUST ANNOYED. Also sorry for ranting peace 🕊️

i literally only look at ao3 at this point for zhongchi or xiaoven shit so i cannot relate but like gjldgkmldfkglg. k*eluc shippers are inescapable on twitter though i hate it. remember the time the genshin official account reblogged some k*eluc art JSKLD:FKFSMP:GDL i hate it here,

anon said: broke: shipping kaeluc

woke: shipping yourself with both of them and thus creating a love triangle full of angst and a lot of tension and competitiveness between them

bespoke: having them realise that they value each other as brothers more than having petty arguments over the same person they like and thus instead of reader becoming a s/o to one of them we become best friends with both of them and the gang's all happy

i can’t tell if this is oomf trying to convince me to alter the ending of inheritance gjkdsnjskdlskj or if it’s just a genuine big-brained idea. either way... i can get on this train of support. OR the reader picks one of them but the other moves on and lives a happy life because why spend time being hung up over reader when you could find someone else.

anon said: all this kael*c (🤢) talk reminded me of the first scene in which we see diluc (yk the one with collecting dvalin's tears with kaeya in the temple? and at the end diluc comes in and destroys the hydro abyss mage? yeah that one) so I went and rewatched it and hrueizkxbd i now remember why i am first and foremost a diluc simp

diluc was fine as fuck especially in the scene where he interrogates the abyss mage,,, ugh /chef’s kiss/. thank you fellow diluc simp.

#im gonna go to class and get even more k*eluc hate in my inbox #i am the new anti-k*eluc safe haven apparently #this happens every time i mention how much i hate the ship #but fr this was NINE ASKS at some point im gonna stop responding to them #//mail

[kanmom51]

My 2cents on the previous discussion about shippers and antis : I did see some mean comments about Tae made by Jikook shippers a few time on Twitter but it seems to be rare. Or maybe I just follow the right accounts! There are surely some haters as well as problematic people amongst Jikookers unfortunately. Nothing compared to the daily hate Jimin receives though and everytime I saw comments shading a member, other Jikookers took care of it and called out the person. I don’t know how it is on other platforms though and again maybe I just follow the right people. Something to be said also : there are fake accounts created to throw hate at a member to make certain shippers look bad. And from what I saw here and there this is a technique that have been used by Taekook believers more than once (and probably other shippers too let’s be honest). I don’t really interact on Twitter but I follow a bunch of Jikook-centered accounts and from my experience they’re respectful of every member and don’t feel the need to downplay anyone. Some of them are a bit obsessed and intense imo (screaming « Jikook are boyfriends for sure » all day long on the tl is a bit too much for me haha but to each their own I guess) but I honestly very rarely encounter problematic or hateful people there. Same with other shippers in general, with the exception of Taekookers... and I don’t mean to start a shipping war or whatever by saying that but yeah I think we all agree that there are a LOT of problematic people among them. Anyways, sorry for the rant!!

Jikookers are not a homogenous group of people. Some are supporters, some are 'shippers' in the pure sense, some with more life experience and some with less, some are nice people, some are not, just like any other group of people that find some kind of shared interest. So, what you say doesn't surprise me.

I'm not on Twitter and live only from what I read here about the behaviour there. I am happy to hear that most Jikookers 'behave' themselves. It's ok to support Jikook. It's even ok to go all crazy about it, as long as they stay respectful not only towards Jikook but also the other members, and to other accounts too, even if they are in disagreement - first of all be respectful, and if someone is disrespectful to you, then disengage and don't lower yourself to their level.

It probably stems from the fact that Jikookers don't perceive the other members as a threat to their relationship. But I also think it comes from many of them being more of observers, supporting the members as to whatever that is between them, and wherever it may take them, if at all. I believe many Jikookers would be happy for both JK & JM period. Together or not, whatever makes them happy.

But what you said about creating fake accounts, OMG, don't they have a life???

The lows that people will go to. And for what???? To try and do what??? I don't get it.

#ask #anon #Jikook #Kookmin #Taekook #JKK #TKK

[aerltarg]

2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 26, 27 from ask game

2. Are there any popular fandom OTPs you only BroTP?

oh, it's actually hard to answer bc pretty often my otps can work as brotps for me as well. it also means that when i can't ship some characters they don't work for me as friends either. not to mention that in asoiaf i'm open to many ships, and if i'm not very passionate about some it's not a sign i can't see them in romantic light.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

may i say any sansa ship? 😭 as well as sansa herself lmao. idk generally i can't ship characters i don't like because i'm just not interested. and it's not to say i don't like book!sansa (show!sansa is another case 💀), i just don't find her arc as intriguing and epic as arcs of some other characters. however, it's absolutely her obnoxious fandom's fault that i don't want to touch anything about her now, pairings including. sansaery? pass. sansan? i used to have a soft spot for them in my heart but now? nah. sansa x anyone? pls have mercy, she's already a fandom bicycle.

and jonsa ofc. i would never mind some crack ship as i do this one if not for their obnoxious stans that did way too much to list there right now. but this burning desire to persuade every rock on the street that your crack ship is canon will never stop being ridiculous lmao

also braime. tbh i used to low-key like them but some of their stans weirded my away lol. i get that not all of them are like that but still. it's generally my great pain when i see braime/brienne/jaime stans who are also dany/targ antis. every time i see them i cackle and run away as fast as i can crying from disappointment lmao. it's really a pity because i'm either very neutral or like in my own way all three of them.

6. Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

jonrya it is! i never hated them, you know, but they never were more than siblings and brotp to me. however, later i encountered the deluded crack ship fandom that shall not be named and understood that if there is any possible romance for jon with any of his sisters-cousins we all know which one it will be lmao. also their stans are very sweet and i really like many of their takes on arya and jon! i generally love relationships of jon and arya very much so it wasn't that difficult in practice to see them in a quite different light.

7. Is there anything you used to like but can't stand now?

meta culture lmao. reading different analysis and interpretations of the text used to be very interesting to me (and still is tbh but in other fandoms) though asoiaf is a different case. imo many people aren't honest in their so called theories and analyses. i get that all of us are biased but some "meta writers'" denial of their own biases influence fandom in a bad way. it looks like too many people run to them to get answers to their questions about any minor detail as if they were grrm himself. yk instead of using their own reading comprehension lmao. you see how this meta culture ruined fandom just looking at the most delusional stans and shippers who spread their agenda by writing endless text posts full of nonsense and bullshit but styled as oh so intellectual and thoughtful analysis. it's insane how many people actually buy it and don't check canon accuracy of such claims themselves. it got to the ridiculous point when random people try to argue with you with some far-fetched embarrassing "theories" as if they were canon facts or quotes straight up from a fanfic because they read somewhere some other confused soul's post and got from a context that this quote is canon (despite the fact that it wasn't written in grrm's style at all but some people can't use their brains even if their lives depended on it it seems).

anyway it's become too long and rambly already so tldr. because of such "neutral unbiased" analyses i got the habit of fact checking almost everything i see in such posts. there's only a small amount of meta writers from targ/dany/jon/arya stans that i trust because i know by practice and following them for some time that they don't pull anything out of nowhere, back up everything they say with canon quotes, don't decontextualize anything and (that is the most important thing to me) are reasonable and open to discussion unlike so many bnfs nowadays.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?

ah, not in this fandom yet, god bless! i think i'm not loud enough for the needed amount of time to deserve it lol. but since i'm not going anywhere soon maybe one day i will 😂

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

robert baratheon and tywin lannister, obviously. tbh it's pretty hard for me to hate any characters because you know. they're fictional lmao. just lines on paper, they can't hurt you. and even such dudes as tywin or robert don't get real distaste from me if they're written well enough. my problem with them lies not only in their canon crimes and shitty consequences of those but in fandom's (or at least some parts of it) unwillingness to acknowledge that they're canonically written as shitty, not as stan/pity/worship material. tywin isn't as clever as some think and robert is a coward outside of battlefield, not to mention some absolutely disgusting denial of his nature from targ antis only because the man happened to be the most vocal targ hater in-universe so these folks feel like he is their main book representative and whitewash him completely lmao

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

uugh idk even. i'm either low-key interested (or used to be at least so i can stay pretty neutral for the sake of nostalgia lol) or too indifferent to really care.

11. Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

all my faves have their own crowd of haters i'm afraid 😭 but let me say rhaegar. even among some dany/targ stans my man is so misunderstood lmao. it's not even his fault i dare say it's fanon about his half-imagined crimes that somehow got widespread to the unbelievable degree. and when i say they're half-imagined i'm being very generous actually. ofc he isn't perfect, no one in asoiaf is. and yes, he's a pre-series dead minor character but almost all little information about him is actually positive, not to mention the narrative itself that doesn't paint him as a villain or just a shitty dude. on the contrary, he's an idealized to some degree dead prince who could've been a good king (like some other historical targaryens, jacaerys, baelor breakspear, aemon son of jaehaerys, etc.), a mysterious yet tragic figure. i have much to say about why it's so popular to shit on him in fandom but yeah. his haters should send their complaints to grrm instead, no one forced the man to write him like that lol. and i mean that no one has to like him ofc. but it's misinterpretation of the text to claim he was intentionally written as a villain or smth by grrm.

12. Is there an unpopular arc that you like that the fandom doesn't? Why?

i don't know if it counts as unpopular but i would say tyrion's arc as a whole because i enjoy his character and like in my own way. i can get why some people don't like him but this man will always have his own place in my heart i must admit.

13. Unpopular opinion about XXX character?

is this unpopular tho?.. ok but renly wouldn't make a terrible king. i dare say he would be better than both robert and stannis. yes, he wasn't shown as perfect and i don't claim this. he wouldn't be the best or the most brilliant or the most just or noble. yet still better than his brothers. his flaws weren't anything other high lords didn't have, his mistakes weren't anything other lords and kings didn't do. in many ways he would make a better job than robert or stannis, too bad he died so early, even though i get why it was important for the narrative.

26. Most shippable character?

well generally for me it's the ones i love the most lol. jonerys/snowstorm is my never dying otp but i admit my sins, sometimes i just see dany with other characters (often from other fandoms pls don't @ me). however, since dany is THE fave of mine it means i would rather twist the other guy or girl to fit into the good match for her than twist her for another character in my new born crack ship lol. and i never stay for too long with the ships with which i feel they don't really fit and don't do justice for each other lol. maybe that's the reason i'm not much of a rare shipper / crack shipper afshdjdb

27. Least shippable character?

everyone i don't like? 😭 as i've said sansa for the reasons above lol. you can insert many others in her place lmao

#thanks for the ask! #.txt #mypost #ask game #anonymous #*answered

[bombshellsandbluebells]

idk, i’m with you that it’s close-minded to act like every single bellarke scene was always romance and only romance, but i don’t think it’s totally fair to place the blame of reading bellarke scenes as romantic just on the idea that we’re trained to see strong m/f friendships that way—especially when bob has just been talking about how they were told to play the scenes with a romantic angle. take “here we are again, pleading for the life of a traitor who you love”—deliberately paralleling someone bellamy not only loves platonically, but also romantically

and it does go back to earlier seasons imo. “but you care about him more” establishes a love interest’s jealousy over another relationship—not inherently romantic in reality, but without further follow-through that jealousy, all the narrative purpose it serves is to bring the possibility of romantic feelings to the forefront. even small lines like “the hostage taker and his girlfriend” obviously aren’t intentional setup on the character’s part—diyoza’s a total stranger who makes sarcastic jabs, it’s who she is—but from a narrative standpoint, that line was deliberately written that way and included in what the viewer sees. i don’t think this negates the deep platonic care there, nor suggests that bellarke can only be read romantically, but i do think it’s fair to say the relationship was, at least at some level, set up as a romantic one

Ok yes, totally! I think you have great points! 

And I feel like I should clarify that I was not trying to be condescending at all with saying we’re trained to see strong m/f friendships romantically. I think that was more a random tangent my own thoughts ended up in as I was thinking about this and the way it’s been framed vs. the way it’s often been read by the fandom and was wondering if that was a factor. And while it MAY be in some areas, you brought up some good moments that I was totally forgetting that seem to set the precedent for people to view it romantically.

@drowinginherflames commented and brought up the scene in s1 where he taught her how to shoot and mentioned it was coded pretty romantically, only it was never followed through with.

I guess here’s where I’ll end up with Bellarke and it’s pretty much what I originally said: I think it was told inconsistently. The moments like above that seem to suggest romance are never fully paid off or expanded upon. They don’t lead anywhere or to anything in a cohesive, consistent manner, but the moments are still THERE to read romance from. That said, I still think those moments make up far less of the show than some people think.

And I think there could be a number of reasons - it’s possible they started with a plan to set up Bellarke romantically in the first few seasons (maybe going off the books) and eventually decided otherwise for whatever reasons. Maybe they went back and forth on what they wanted. Maybe they decided they didn’t want to pay it off romantically but deliberately gave nods to the shippers along the way. Who knows. 

None of me talking about this is meant to sound like “you crazy shippers saw something that wasn’t there” (although I will be honest there are certain meta posts claiming canonical “proof” that are complete nonsense and in THOSE particular cases I think it’s people building something out of nothing) because shipping can be built out of whatever scraps of canon you want and interpretations vary by audience, but more just me looking at the writing and fandom and just....I don’t know, analyzing for fun I guess.

I disagree with the idea that they were telling a romantic storyline and building to a Bellarke endgame consistently for 6 seasons and then didn’t pay it off, but ALSO I think you’re right to bring up moments that seem deliberately romantically coded. It’s there and it’s not haha. Schrodinger’s Bellarke.

Now with B*b saying he was told to play it romantically, I’m going to be honest and say I don’t take his word as proof. That’s not to say he isn’t telling the truth - maybe they were told that, I can’t say they weren’t - BUT I’m not taking his word as absolute truth based on what has recently been revealed of his character and because of how much he has to gain by appealing to the fanbase now AND the fact that it’s completely at odds with how he’s talked about the ship in the past. He could be telling the truth, he could be trying to win favor with the fandom after his reputation was hurt, I don’t know.

Anyways, good points, anon! Thanks for bringing up the lines/moments I completely forgot.

Also @dylanobrienisbatman this is probably a better answer for you! I was forgetting all these moments even existed.

#ask #antibellarke #anti bellarke #not really but just in case :)

[andsmile]

i saw this in a bughead blog and i wanted to ask you too 🥺️ rate, on a scale from 1 to 10, the canon riverdale ships, either just the main/current ones (bughead, varchie, choni, kangs, falice) or the main ones *and* the passing ones (add in veggie, archosie, josiepea, valarchie, mevin, joavin, gladsythe, etc)! hope the buggies aren't angry for copying the ask 😘

hey nonnie! haha i don’t think the buggies will mind! anyway ok, let’s do this. let it be said that all of these ships are better in their fanon version than the canon one. fanfiction fixes everything, y’all. 

bughead: 6.5/10 - listen, s1 bughead to me was chef’s kiss. i adore their soft, nerdy side with the investigative duo trope. but after s2 at least to me... i can only see glimpses of the ship i loved so much in the past and i’ll hold on to that ship forever, but i feel like their essence derailed a little after s2′s arc. but still, in canon and with the way the show is written, they’re very solid and i don’t see any other ship with these characters that is or could be more compatible or interesting. although i would like to see how they behave in other relationships (except for b/rchie for god’s sake, this shame i won’t bring to my family). but yeah.

varchie: 9.5/10 - they are my favorite thing in this show and it’s a ship made of my two favorite characters, but i recognize that there’s a lot about them in canon that could be done in a better way (yes, i know archie cheated, but it was so... off... that i can’t even start to understand and it’s clear that they did that for drama, and that they wanted archie to be the weak link because, well), the writing of the characters actually could be so much better and have so much more depth. this is why i write so much for them. but anyway, soulmates, star-crossed lovers, crazy about each other, taught each other what it means to love, meant to be, no matter how much they hurt each other or fight each other they’ll always find their way back.

ch*ni: 2/10 - i just... look, i understand the entire concept and i am so glad there’s some wlw representation, especially with cheryl who was a character that had wlw vibes from the beginning, but it’s just sloppy writing overall and their chemistry, in my honest opinion, doesn’t overcome the sloppy writing. they are cute, but the whole ordeal is just not my cup of tea, cause i don’t see it. i don’t know if that’s understandable and i’m sorry if it offends anyone.

kangs: 4/10 - they’re cute (fangs is cute, kevin is cute, so! cuteness overall) but i don’t feel a lot for them. again, all the sloppy writing in the lgbt representation of this show.

f*lice: -30/10 - nope. WHY WAS THIS NEEDED I’LL NEVER UNDERSTAND.

veggie: 6.5/10 - the way i was veggie’s biggest fan before they happened for real, and it’s not even because i don’t like them - I STILL DO - but again, the sloppy writing cannot let me ship them for real in canon. i understand what they tried to do, and it would’ve been A+ if they had managed to do it, but they didn’t. points are not lower because i really love reggie and they look very hot together.

archosie: 4/10 - another neutral opinion because i have not really watched any archosie episodes. i feel like they were cute, but they wanted to be something they really weren’t feeling... imo again. (1000x better than b/rchie tho)

josiepea: 5/10 - i thought their mini arc was the sweetest thing ALTHOUGH of course we didn’t see much, because god forbid poc representation take over five minutes, but anyway, it was SWEET, who knew sp was such a softie. i wish we’d seen more (and i wish we’d seen more of chuck/josie too!)

valarchie: 4/10 - i actually liked them although it was very clear to me that this arc was about transitioning from gr*ndy to veronica, which well... i wish we had seen more val though.

mevin: 8/10 - MY MISUNDERSTOOD CHILDREN, you don’t understand. mevin was my first ship in riverdale from the moment kevin talked about him in the pilot and for some reason they keep coming back to me and being taken away again and uuugh the pain. i like them not only for the trope, but because i really feel like they were the only kevin ship that ras put some effort on, and anyway, my biggest tears. i can’t wait for s9e23 when moose comes back from the war to marry my son.

joavin: 1/10 - i don’t think i’d dislike joavin as much if the shippers weren’t so 🥴️ saying joaquin was better for kevin than moose because moose wasn’t out and was having some weird relationship with midge, when joaquin was literally using kevin, but anyway. trash.

gladsythe: 7.5/10 - i had a different vision of gladys in my head but when she showed up and interacted with fp i was like, yes. that’s it. the fact that two badass parents produced such a brooding child like jughead makes me cackle. lower points are only because... fp isn’t a hero and gladys isn’t a big bad wolf. but anyway, the joneses! love it.

mcmantle: 5/10 - didn’t love them or hate them but they deserved better.

thanks for the question, my love!

#re: riverdale #anon #reply #i stuck to the canon ships as you see #mwah

[beetlemancy]

Ok, people, question; do we know of a fic where Jester becomes convinced Caleb has a crush on Marion? And girl's caught between "Aw, he's so interesting and Momma deserves a hot young lover (HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, DAD? Are You Jealous Yet?), and Momma's seen a lot and would probably be good with a lot of Caleb's stuff that he keeps trying to hide from us" and "But he's MY friend. If he falls in love with anyone it should be m - someone in the group. Or my pre-approved list of our friends".

And Jester wants them both to happy and just channels that (and her jealousy) into aggressively trying to hook them up. And Caleb is confused and a little scared (and a little turned on, bc Jester is powerful and terrifying and apparently that is a thing for him) and Marion, while she appreciates being addressed as "Frauline Marion", is confused and then - oh. Oh, Jester, I think we need to have a talk, you and me, yes? Or is this something I've gotta write myself?

I’m gonna be honest, I didn’t quite follow all of this entirely but I also just woke up (slept in today woo). It sounds like a hoot n a half though! I do love anything that smacks of Much Ado, but with a twist? I guess?

I think many WJ shippers would absolutely love this fic and you should definitely write it if you’re inspired to do so! ALL the fics should be written, IMO. 

I just personally am sort of a .... like what I enjoy about WJ is the yearning, tbh, and I am not 100% on the AU’s where Jester ever feels the same way for ANY of her ships, not at least until something happens more in game. But that’s just me personally! Others are totally valid in how they interact with fandom, so you do you boo!

Maybe other people can comment some better notes for your story!

#widojest #Anonymous

[robertisbisexual]

I see all these will sonny Paul stuff on your blog and have no idea what happened. What’s the story there? Who’s who? Who forgot about who? I’m sorry this is just me being so confused! X

Welcome to a crash course in gays of our lives anon [because days doesnt know what a bisexual is or a wlw tbh]

also NEVER APOLOGIZE i love talking about Paul and Will and sometimes Sonny.

So

Will is the blond man, Paul is the Asian man, and Sonny is obviously the remaining man.

Will and Sonny were the big ship back in the day and represented a lot of firsts in terms of queer rep in daytime soaps.  And for the most part they had a pretty good relationship [theres the whole Will not coming out right away and managing to knock up Gabi thing but ultimately their trio parenting is very cute and I like their family so \ o/ ]

Now Chandler [the blond man in all the gifs i reblogged] decided to leave and they recasted the character. It was... a choice that some liked and some didnt. I didnt really have strong feelings on it because I barely watched at that time and I never really cared about Wilson all that much.

But you see days is a soap that LIVES on love triangles [if you dont have some sort of relationship drama youre probably only gonna be on screen one day a week tbh] and so eventually they brought in Paul.

I am very Paul biased and I aint sorry about it.

Paul was introduced as a closeted major league baseball player in Salem for a fancy surgery and we eventually found out he was [in a retcon i believe] Sonnys first love but they broke up cuz he wouldnt come out etc etc. It caused some drama llama because days is gonna days.

Eventually Will banged Paul for the scoop story on him being a gay man and cheated on Sonny to do so and then when Sonny and Will were i think broken up and definitely not in a good place period the show decided “lets murder will and let the viewers see it from his POV”

It did not go over well. Like not even with just fandom it went over bad everywhere because Will was a legacy character people watched grow up and is a child of two of the most important families in Days history and it was... the worst. just a dumb dumb thing [side note he was kinda murdered by Ben, current days heartthrob fgdsdsgdf]

So in the wake of that Paulson rose from dead Wilson ashes. And people loved it! Like ok sure not all wilson fans loved it because shippers and monoshipping but the general audience loved the the sl and Paul.

It lasted ... years. like the build to them getting married was LONG.

And then we found out Chandler was coming back because the only thing days loves more than love triangles is bringing someone back from the dead. So surprise Ben didnt actually kill will because a magic days potion thing saved him? just made him seem dead? idk its confusing.

Ben crashed a wedding and yelled about Will being alive and even tho Wilson weren't even together when Will died and we’d spent years now watching Sonny fall big time loe in love with Paul the SECOND he heard Will was alive it was like Paul whomst?

A buncha angst happened, paul looked sad alot, and they found Will alive only Will thought he was EJ [his step dad, its a long story] and had no memories of anyone. People convinced him to move back to Salem and to try and remember and in a big ass disservice to Sonnys character the writers made him a lil turd bucket who dumps Paul and then just sorta assumed him and Will will be together.

Except amnesia Will had only one goal in his newly discovered new/oldlife: to get smashed into next year by beautiful Paul.

This man literally divorced [idk how you need to get divorced when youve been declared legally dead and Sonny was literally about to get married a few weeks prior but whatever days you do you] sonny for a CHANCE at that sweet sweet paul action.

Paul was VERY hesitent about Will because he still loved Sonny and even if Sonny didnt want to be with him he didnt want to hurt Sonny. IMO the writing for Sonny here is awful tbh and they made him both way to aggressive in his attempts to be with Will and cold in his treatment of Paul. It was like a light switch got flipped from “loves paul” to “loves will” and there was no inbetween [this is an issue they duplicated with Will months later and it was imo just as poorly done]

What came next was Paul and Will growing closer and fallin in love and I WOULD LITERALLY DIE FOR THEM but like even the most diehard horita shipper knew that eventually will x sonny would happen.

And not too long after Will and Paul shared the i love yous and basically moved in together etc etc Will started his journey of recovering his memories and Paul was CLEARLY nervous about it but supportive and helpful because hes just a soft good human tbh and Will repeatedly told him nothing would change [but we knew rip]

Except as soon as Will got his full memories back he had that light switch flip himself and literally seconds after having memories back was like “time to dump paul“

except dumbass paul with a heart of gold literally tackled someone out a window of a mansion to save Wills mom from being hurt and ended up paralyzed because apparently days only knows how to write men of color out by paralyzing them [ because they LITERALLY just did this exact exit with another character not even a year before this but i digress] so Will felt guilty and stayed with Paul, though not too guilty because he kept making out with Sonny in public places and getting reamed for it by Pauls brother Brady.

Then Paul ... figured it out? Or Will finally fessed up I cant really remember tbh I sorta blocked it out because it was ...not well written. Anyways they broke up and literally a day later Paul was like ok bye dad and brother im moving back to san fran for fancy medical treatment see ya whenever and just left lmao without even saying goodbye to anyone else.

and now we’re at the point where days clearly has no idea what to do with only 2 gay men and no triangle because all they've done since Paul left is that Sonny was blackmailed into marrying guest character Leo, also a gay man, who they thought they’d killed months before [and paul helped them cover up I believe because he's perfect] but surprise you didnt and now you gotta be married and stay apart because... reasons.

And then Leo finally left and they were free of that only now Will has a brain tumor as a side effect form the magic serum stuff that gave him his memories back but they’re only ever on like one day a week and I gotta be honest its so boring anon.

I miss Paul and also Will's personality and I wish they’d both come back.

and that’s what you missed on glee.

#days of our lives #horita

[paperclipninja]

Younger post-ep ramble 5x06

Ok so I just watched this week's episode again (5x06) and I really do love it so much. And I have so many thoughts and feelings so my ramble is under the cut. Just an FYI, I'm firmly Team Charles so a significant portion of this will focus on them, though I do adore all the characters and will def be throwing out thoughts about the whole episode, not just the ship.

First of all, I am so happy to see Maggie getting a big break with her art. I loved her emotional response to it all at the gallery and of course I'm thrilled that she and Diana finally met. I would love to see the two of them become friends, I think it would be fab because while they're both such different people, Maggie and Diana are both unabashedly themselves and tell it like it is which would make for an awesome dynamic (I'd also put Lauren in the same kind of category and actually as I'm writing this I would love LOVE for the three of them to hang out!).

And the Enzo/Diana situation, I'm digging it. The scene with his mother was absolute gold and when Diana spoke Italian I almost punched the air with the awesomeness of it. She is seriously one of the best characters on tv, I love everything about Diana Trout.

An unexpected aspect of this episode for me was Zane. I haven't been sold on him up to this point but after this episode I feel like we began to see some of his depth and sincerity, not to mention the fact that he's actually a smart guy who knows how to edit books (I know that sounds silly but up until now it almost felt like he was all talk and wasn't actually that competent at his job, well to me anyway!). Seeing him and Kelsey working together was nice and hearing him openly acknowledge her intelligence in a way that was sincere has warmed me to him more.

I do hope the writers are able to be creative with Kelsey's arc as this season progresses, because it seems fairly predictable at this point (we know the two guys situation is thing to blow up spectacularly). I want to see a bit more character growth for her because I feel like Kelsey gets career progression at the expense of personal progression on the show.

Can I just say that the whole rockstar premise was so good and she was honestly one of the most enjoyable guest stars I've seen in ages. Her lines just cracked me up and I loved seeing Charles (who, by the way, I never picked as a puffy jacket kinda guy. His dad was definitely showing when he walked up to that door) being given the tour and trying to put his foot down and getting nowhere. Now this is where shipper me will start weaving in between general show commentary.

The snark of the babysitter remark when Liza arrived was harsh, yes, but man I also loved it. Yeah ok, it emphasizes where Charles is at in the whole dealing/not dealing with the lie situation, but it also shows that he's been thinking about past experiences together. And I love the writers for indicating to us that Charles has been deciphering the truthful elements from moments he and Liza have shared. But even more, I was so excited that Charles introduced Liza as one of their finest editors. In ep 4 he told her she’s good at her job and he’s now acknowledging her with a higher accolade. It’s as though he’s re-framing her in his mind with the knowledge of the truth and has managed to do so professionally but isn’t quite there yet personally.

I also love that this show is completely unabashed in having Chrissy ask Liza if she's there to cockblock because Liza's reaction (as always tbh) was priceless.

Now can we jump to drunk Charles and Liza please. I never knew I wanted this until I saw it in this episode. My god I want a whole episode of them having drunken conversation because it was everything. The diversion plan was like listening to ppl you know coming up with what they think is a brilliant idea when they're hammered and the Murder She Wrote moment was perfection. I love that they chose a show where Charles could tease her about being a nanna rather than just another age appropriate reference for him to deliver more snark. And in that moment we got a glimpse of what they could (and will) be together and my shipper heart swells thinking about it. And again, it was a teaser, yes, but another step forward because that side of them and ability to be like that together is there.

Now I may well be in the minority, but I cannot tell you how worried I was when that heartbreaking 'when will you trust me again?' scene started. That scene to me was absolutely perfect and just as I'd imagined it would play out. Liza was honest about the way his behaviour is making her feel and we saw that after her gut wrenching 'goodnight', Charles was gutted himself and his pain at causing her pain was palpable. So going into this scene knowing that they were both drunk, I was worried they would end up sleeping together. And I know that some ppl are disappointed nothing more happened between the two of them, but the fact the writers didn’t throw them together at this point actually gives me far more faith in their intentions for this season than if they had. A drunken tryst would act as another stalling tactic, it’s too easy to backtrack and cause all sorts of unnecessary drama surrounding the unresolved elements. The fact that we saw Charles’ anguish after Liza went into her room and his conflict around wanting to knock but not quite being ready to yet is far more powerful in moving this story forward in an authentic way IMO.

As much as Charles leaving pained me, the look of resolve that washed over Liza’s face after the initial hurt when Chrissy told her he’d gone was such a subtle, great set up for the last scene. I do hope that Charles apologises for leaving because it was an A grade douchy move and I’m not even talking about because of the unresolved relationship stuff, but purely because he bailed on his colleague after the night before asking her not to leave him alone with Chrissy. Not cool Charlie boy, not cool.

Liza was just brilliant from this point onward, I loved the conversation she had with Chrissy to convince her to publish the book, you could see her honesty and recounting the impact of the music fill her with strength again as she spoke (hats off to Sutton for being ridiculously talented). And then after that amazing speech, her reaction to being asked if she wanted her boobs signed was absolutely priceless.

And that brings me to the final scene (and if you’re still with me on this ridiculous ramble then you have also been brought to this final scene and thank you for reading!). Having seen it in the promo I was sceptical about how powerful it would end up being as a statement but boy was I wrong. The music, the way Liza walked straight into Charles’ office and slightly raised her right eyebrow as she dropped the manuscript...it was one of the best moments of a woman owning her power I’ve seen for a long time. The ball is now in Charles’ court. And I, for one, cannot wait to see where this goes next week. 

#younger tv #youngertv #spoilers #charles brooks #liza miller #diana trout #charles x liza #liza x charles #team charles #ramble #tv land

[jaylos]

Rant - Rise of the Isle of the Lost

(alternative title: i read rise of the isle of the lost so you don’t have to)

first off i’m probably biased but if you got something out of my opinions in the past then maybe you’ll find this interesting as well.

there are spoilers, obviously, but if you ask me, you really don’t have to read the book, save your money. (i put a short summary under the cut so you know what’s going on)

i’m gonna be honest this turned more into “i’m picking this book apart” than just a rant lmao. i blame the excessive amount of cinemasins i’ve been watching over the past few days.

and be warned - this is gonna be LONG and not very nice.

~summary if you haven’t read the book~ Arabella (Ariel’s niece) snatched the trident to fuck around, causes a storm, and loses it in the ocean. Waves carry it through the barrier to isle territory, because the barrier is penetrable for a short amount of time due to Arabella’s magic fuckery i think.

Uma hears a rumor that the trident is here, but she has no way to get to it before someone else finds it.

Captain Hook hosts a race where everyone can enter with anything that can swim, the price is a pirate ship. Uma wins the race and now has a ship and a pirate crew consisting of Harry, Gil and a few others.

Through Sophie (Yen Sid’s apprentice) they learn that Ursula’s golden seashell necklace is on the Isle of the Doomed (where Maleficent’s castle is) and they sail there to find it, because there’s enough magic left in it to guide them to the trident or something.

They find the trident but then Mal&Co show up.

While all this is happening Arabella tells the rotten four that she lost the trident, and through the magic mirror they find out where it is, and that a lot of people on the isle of the lost are looking for it, so they set out to find it first. FGM catches them as they try to steal a boat that belongs to Ben’s family, but Ben shows up to convince FGM that it was fine. The five of them then drive the boat to the barrier, where Mal pokes a hole and calls the trident to her, just as Uma is about to get her hands on it, overpowering Uma.

There’s also a sideplot where Ben goes to the great wall of China with Lonnie to solve a conflict between two villages but this is all totally irrelevant.

~end of summary~

and just to get this out of the way - don’t give me that “it’s a book for children” bs. just because it’s for a younger demographic doesn’t mean it can’t be good.

ok let’s start with the things i liked:

- Lonnie has a sword (which is a clear sign of lesbianism)

- Jane wants to do magic and she wants to help people fairy godmother style. i love this because 1. it gives her more personality and 2. it’s exactly how i imagined her lmao.

- Mal uses magic despite the magic ban.

- i like Gil, he’s kinda cute. and Harry too, and the dynamic between him and Uma and Gil. (ot3 anyone?)

now to the cons:

- Harry has this obsession with his hook (which he has to hold in his hand cause he still has both hands) which i find interesting, it has so much angst potential but i already know i’m gonna have to write a fic about that myself cause it’s gonna be hella disappointing in the movie because either 1. it’s not talked about at all or 2. it’s only good for a joke or two. (”oh no! my hook!” cue sitcom laugh track)

- the use of the word “guyliner”

- CJ is Harry’s younger sister, Harriet is his older sister. the gastons twins are gil’s brothers. Melissa de la Cruz *grasping at straws*: conSisTEnCy

- speaking of consistency, the anti-heroes club isn’t mentioned once, in case you were wondering.

- there’s another school besides dragon hall on the isle, it’s called Serpent Prep. like, i know there are characters (mostly Uma) who appear now for the first time without being mentioned before, ever. i can forgive that. but making up a whole new school just adds to the confusion of how big the isle actually is, and it’s also completely redundant.  this world just feels like a car accident where more cars keep crashing into the wrecks that are already blocking the street.

- carlos being in favor of the magic ban. what. remember how he was a slave for the better part of his life? “people should learn to live without magic” suck my toe (i made another post about what i think of the magic ban here)

- idk if this is on melissa de la cruz or what but the writing is just. not good. the sentences are boring, the use of adverbs is weird, the characters are shallow, the worldbuilding is.. idk how to describe it. it’s like when you look at the window of a shop and it looks nice, but when you enter it’s empty. or like a cardboard facade.

- all the characters do and say the things that are most obvious for them, but nothing beyond that. there’s no life in the characters and the world doesn’t draw you in.

- also the pacing is awful. in my first reading session i read about a third but it felt like nothing had happened. there’s so much setting up (and most of it is boring, it feels like every character just appears for their mandatory line but it has no relevance) and i’m just waiting for the plot.

- janelos. if you’re a janelos shipper than good for you, but i’m not and i’m salty. they could have such a great platonic relationship, why why why does it have to be romantic? (don’t bother, i already know the answer) they had a scene together, which was kinda sweet (through my platonic goggles), but “her laugh is cute” is not fucking enough to make a romantic relationship believable. 

their entire romantic relationship is built on “he was a boy, she was a girl” and nothing else.

- also devie. i’m pretty indifferent to this ship in general but the way it’s portrayed is so lackluster, like. doug shows up (for no other reason than showing up at least once in this book), is called evie’s boyfriend and that’s kinda it. we didn’t see how they got together, we don’t see what their relationship is like (except doug sorta putting evie on a pedestal), it’s just.. kinda there. wow. so much feeling.

there’s so much time wasted on meaningless worldbuilding that there’s no time left for giving life to the characters and their relationships. (actually there would be time, the book is not that long)

- (safe for uma, harry and gil) this book doesn’t even try to get me to like the main characters and completely relies on the fact that i already know and like them from preceding works.

- there’s always a parallel plot with Ben going on in every book, which is.. not terrible, but especially in this one it’s very distracting from the main plot, besides, what he’s doing is rarely all that interesting.  he’s travelling with lonnie and they had a nice scene together but it ended before it got anywhere near interesting. (Lonnie was about to get character development but then it was about Ben the end)

- not that i dislike ben, or that i don’t care for what he’s doing, but his sideplot is kinda just there so that is already short book isn’t even shorter. in the last book it had at least something to do with what the others were doing, but this time it doesn’t have any significance to the main storyline whatsoever. imo they should’ve just cut the whole bit out and put this content somewhere else, idk, give him his own diary or something, but now it’s just annoyingly strewn throughout the actual story.

(edit: you know what nevermind, this whole plotline is bullshit i’m not even gonna go into it but they punch a whole into the great wall of china and i crave Death™)

- the room that is taken up by ben’s sideplot could’ve been used to elaborate the relationships between the characters, or the characters’ inner lives. this book does so much tell not show that everything feels flat. “they’re best friends, they’re boyfriend/girlfriend, they love each other very much” ya thanks for telling me but is anything gonna happen to back these statements up or

- there’s an entire page that’s basically a montage of the pirate crew repairing Uma’s ship and it’s hella redundant (just like 50% of the book tbh)

- somehow interesting scenes are left out and when the plot is picked up again it’s “this happened and now we’re somewhere else”.

- the other characters get a sideplot too, which would be nice except they all have like 1 character trait and it’s all pretty meaningless. plus, the chapters are all super short and jumping between plotlines all the damn time is annoying.

- new characters appear just to be a plot device. happened with freddie and maddie in book 2, happens now with Arabella in book 3. she’s the niece of Ariel, but we don’t know who her mother is (based on her being described as wearing purple i’m gonna guess it’s Alana) which is excuable because i guess you can’t expect the readers to know all the names of Ariel’s sisters, but it just adds to her being a throwaway character. $100 that Arabella won’t appear in dd2. 

- actually, going off on a tangent about maddie here, wasn’t her background story basically the same as uma’s? that she was a friend of Mal’s when they were little? whatever happened to her, guess well never know cause she’s never gonna appear again.

- new things are made up just for convenience, or idk maybe it’s supposed to flesh out the world but it all feels so disjointed and loveless.  the annual seaside festival (i think it’s called?) where king triton whips out the old trident to give Arabella an opportunity to lose the trident in the first place, the R.O.A.R. competiotion (i forgot what that’s short for too, but it’s a mix of parcour and fencing, whatever) just to give Jay some other purpose besides “is also there” instead of, idk, an actual personality and inner life (but the VK’s dealing with the aftermath of growing up on the Isle is probably too serious and scawy uwu) like idk it’s probably the same in a lot of other stories, but instead of giving life to this world it all feels meaningless (like 98% of wicked world tbh)

- Lonnie has an older brother who wants to launch a hiphop career, and his name is Li’l Shang, which is an absolute fucking joke and takes the cake for worst name in this franchise.

- Ursula’s golden seashell is on the isle because for some reason it didn’t make it to Auradon where it was supposed to be displayed at the museum. i get that they want to use what they can from disney movies but this is just bullshit. the seashell being on the isle makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

- the critical overuse of the word “swaggered”

- seriously it’s like de la cruz saw one of those “words to use instead of walked”- tumblr posts and picked two (swaggered and sauntered)

- almost halfway through, wondering if there’s gonna be a plot

the things in this story just sorta happen, there’s no real suspense curve.

- ok this is really subjective but “Lost Revenge” for a name for a ship is so unnecessarily edgy lmao

- i’m writing most of this stuff as i come across it and at this point i’m just groaning in agony. they just introduced a new character, Sophie, who is Yen Sid’s sorcerer’s intern. intern for sorcery. on the isle of the lost. sure. also, apparently yen sid brought her with him when he moved to the isle like???? i mean the people of auradon already didn’t give a shit about the children that were born on the isle, but they just let yen sid take a little girl with him??? what the fffffffff (also sophie is another throwaway character that will never appear again. i’m blaming this on the fact that there are approximately 462 different canons in this franchise and we don’t get the chance to get attatched to characters that only function as plot devices in whatever canon they appear in)

- a new character called Charlie is introduced as the village elder of Stone Village (china, next to the wall) and he’s only a few years older than ben. he’s the descendant of ??? (molly and arthur weasly, probably) (seriously this is a throwaway character if i’ve ever seen one)

- mal’s morals are inconsistent. she has no problem using her spellbook for minor inconveniences but doesn’t want to steal a boat because it’s not the auRaDOn wAy.

- evie scolding mal for using the spellbook too often because that way she’ll never learn to live without magic (yadda yadda) but she also does this when mal opens a gate with magic in order to get to the boat they are going to steal, even though the matter is pretty time-sensitive and they had no other way of getting around that gate. like i get the idea of “solving problems without magic”, but this was really not the time to play moralizer, evie.

- there’s a yacht club building and FGM is giving it a new coat of paint with her wand solving problems without magic eat my entire ass.

she keeps using her wand!!! what the fuck!!!!

- i’m not going to go into detail over this but everything falls into place so conveniently that there aren’t really any obstacles to overcome and every conflict is solved within a matter of sentences.

- there are small cliffhangers every 200 words because it keeps jumping between plotlines. before you even get the chance to get into one of the plotlines it’s over again and it takes ages for anything to move along cause the stories keep interrupting each other.

- i’m losing my fucking mind over here as we speak. FGM catches the rotten four trying to steal a boat and she seriously thinks sending them back to the isle is an appropriate punishment. this is absolutely ludicrous and completely disproportionate. “this is exactly what we feared when we let villains into Auradon” they! are! children! (i know technically they’re teens but this doesn’t change the fact that imprisoning them on the isle again is super fucking cruel) i can’t believe how terribly literally everything is handled in this goodforsaken fantasy world. (not to mention that this is an insult to the character of FGM)

- so it’s been established that Mal can turn back time and she uses it when Uma reaches the trident. mal turns back time, uma doesn’t have the trident yet. so far so good, right?

look, i know time travel stuff is always prone to plotholes, but this is just ridiculous. 1. when she first uses it she comes to the conclusion “those with villain blood appear to be immune”, because evie wasn’t affected by it. it works on uma (though she remembers reaching the trident but doesn’t understand what happened) and it’s not made clear how it actually affects someone with villain blood. the setup for this whole shtick was weak. idk if i explained that well enough but you can ask me if you want a more detailed explanation i still have salt left lmao. 2. through carlos we know the others felt it happending, but what about ben? they don’t explain it to him even though he should have no memory of mal turning back time. 3. this book had all the time in the world to make this universe’s rules of time travel a little more clear (like why did nothing happen to both uma’s row boat and the speedboat? do objects not get set back in time too?) 4. one rule was explained tho: “it only turns back time to the top of the hour, and only if it’s been less than fifteen minutes” so mal might only have turned back time for like 1 minute, which would explain why the boats remain in the same spot, but it doesn’t change the fact that everything conveniently falls into place again because it just so happens to be *just* the right time for it to work (meaning no more than 15 minutes after a full hour) which in turn makes me wonder why this “top of the hour” rule was established in the first place. they could’ve just left that bit out and this whole thing wouldn’t be another case of dumb luck for the protagonists. i guess i’ll just go fuck myself.

- ok safe for that time travelling bs the last third is actually a lot okay-er than the rest. there was a cool scene where harry fell down a hole and was scared an panicking. this and the whole pirate-crew-escapes-from-a-trap-filled-cave was the best part of the book imo.

- after the great showdown between uma and mal (where they’re not actually face to face due to the barrier and thick fog, which is kind of a cool way to safe their encounter for the movie, i’ll give them that) mal stumbles backwards when she caught the trident and accidentally knocks evie overboard, which is completely unnecessarily dramatic, because the climax is already over, and is just there to show once again how gay mal and evie are for each other, without actually delivering. same old. (there’s also a scene where evie looks at mal “with a fond smile” while she’s sleeping like come on. those two scenes contain more feeling than any interaction between ben and mal ever. and at the end there is an exchange between the two that literally, like word for word, draws parallels to an interaction between ben an mal like are you kidding me)

- Evie says several times that Mal shouldn’t use magic, which is not too out of character i guess, i mean Evie has enough baggage concerning magic that this is believable.

she did use her mirror a lot, which is clearly magic, but somehow this is different from mal solving a problem with her spellbook?? hypocritical much. and it kinda retcons on the whole setup of her not being comfortable with magic.

in the end she gives her mirror to the museum, but it wasn’t her idea. it would’ve tied in with her previous statements a lot better if she herself had been like “i should give up my mirror so i have consistent characterization”

- Audrey dumps Chad for reasons unknown. not that i care all that much about that ship (i do think it’s interesting tho) but idk is this just so the movie doesn’t have to explain why they aren’t together anymore? (would be kinda lazy) felt like it was just there for cheap laughs.

- i’m surprised Jay didn’t get an Obligatory Love Interest™ but actually i’m not surprised because none of the writers care about jay.

- you might remember R.O.A.R. (the fencing/sword fighting-parcour-clusterfuck-sport). so chad was the captain of the team and has practised sword fighting all his life, but jay manages to beat him after a total amount of? 3? or so hours of training? and immediately becomes the new captain? bull

- also jay is supposedly really good at parcour, right? but he needed to practise wall jumps cuz his technique was bad or something for some reason. why tho. isn’t parcour his forte and why did carlos make the team before jay did. like not saying he can’t do roar but come on.

honestly tho, i kinda set myself up for this. i mean i already didn’t like the second book but for some reason i thought this one was going to be different.

the writing, characterization, worldbuilding etc. is just really lazy to me, and tbh i think it just exists to squeeze more money out of this franchise.

other people with different expectations and lower standards for writing might enjoy this tho idk

#disney descendants #rise of the isle of the lost #rise of the isle of the lost spoilers #rant

[justanearth-boundmisfit]

Re: Destiel. I loathe fans who spam on Twitter, but I think most care about Cas but esp. Misha. I see a lot of support of him so that makes most Destiel fans ok in my book. They gloss over the treatment of Cas but maybe they get more entertainment than bitterness out of spn so I can't fault them lol U know what pisses me off? Tptb. Surprise right?? I just saw the qotd of filming on twitter and I'm like really? They can bait the shippers all day and night long but the moment people bite and 1/2

2/2 ask questions or talk about it they’re crazies, disrespectful and destiel doesn’t exist. Yeah… Can’t wait for the unspoken words of Dean… They’re probably gonna be about mary, crowley, the pie he didn’t eat or a motw from 3 seasons ago.. the most Cas will get is prob. a “u should have followed us, ur fearless leaders”. And then D/C fans will still be the delusional ones. This is more queerbaiting than every single stupid dirty joke Misha has made on Destiel in 9 years combined. Fuckers.

Under the cut, for long reply

Hello anon! Well yes, tptb are pure bs. But they have been doing it since day one. Spn queerbaiting is nothing new. Heck I think I this point there must be serious studies about it. At the beginning was meh, we knew they were doing it, some fans thought that deancas were endgame (some still do), and they let them do it. Of course they have been thousands of complainings about it, but the truth is that the majority of the fans, as I always say it, eat their crumbs. Spn wouldn’t be on his 13th season without his rabid fandom. A fandom that complains (included myself) about anything and everything, but at the end sit their asses to continue watching. But I have to stop watching spn because, gods because so many reasons, but above all the writing, the characterization was really a downer for me. The show was only giving me pain, I should enjoy a show, not dread it. I’m still holding on Cas because I love him and I love Misha and his acting. But if not for that it would`ve been sayonara ages ago. They bait the shippers, but the shippers take the bait, made 2000 slo mo gifs about it, 234 metas, then eat it, and say: yes more please! with a smile. Yes tptb are assholes, but who let them? If a fucking mixtape was more important that, Idk, Cas’ depression for example? 

This thing with the ship and shippers…it’s a really though topic, everyone has their opinion, and the fandom wars are on a high point now more than ever. You know the difference between a few years ago and now imo? We loved the characters, seriously that’s it. And you could tell me “but shippers love their characters too”, yeah not so much. I think they love the characters as couple, not as individuals. An incredible painful example is Cas’ death, destiel shippers didn’t mourn him, they were expecting the man pain from Dean. That’s not love. Well at least for me it’s not. I started shipping dean and cas, because in the early seasons, they were really well written, and were amazing characters tbh. Dean wasn’t a complete asshole and Cas wasn’t broken or used as a punching bag, they have their issues ofc, it’s spn after all, but they still worked together. The story of the angel falling for the man that he rescued was a good one, and the chemistry was there in spades. For me it was progressive and slow, heck I liked Lisa for Dean tbh. I have never shipped a m/m couple before, not because I think it’s wrong (before some fucker think that), but because I didn’t see the same magic that I saw later with dean and cas. I still don’t see it in other ships. But in the middle of season 6 is where spn lost me. I saw what they were trying to do with Cas, and when Dean said to death “kill him already” that was the final strike for me. So I started living in fanon and with the memories of how great dean and cas were at some point. Now all I see is an alcoholic hunter with anger issues that mistreats Cas again and again, and Cas that is broken beyond repair, takes the abuse. And I know it’s the writers fault, and I hate them even more for that. Not for destroying my ship, but for how shitty they treat my beloved characters, how they destroy them individually. 

Look, I defended destiel shippers now and then, but at this point I don’t know if I can anymore. Of course amongst the rabid are really great people, of fucking course! Not all of them are obsessed, there are shippers that truly care about Cas (or Dean). But if the majority continue buying the bs that tptb are selling, then this is going to be an endless path of pain and hate. Because you know why they post that board tainting the shippers? Because it works. Surely later they are going to call shippers delusional, and destiel doesn’t exist, and they are assholes for that. But when the waters calm down the shippers are going to come back for more. Sad but true.

We don’t know if Misha is coming back, nobody says anything, they are playing with that too the fuckers, and Misha, that surely is still under contract can`t say anything. Besides I don’t see Misha a la Mark S., been all wanker about it to be honest, he wouldn’t do that. I wish, oh how I wish, that Misha has a great project other than spn, and he could say fuck you to tptb. He deserves better from the show and from some fans too.

This got long and a mess and I’m sorry. I hope you get my point. Hugs anon!

#Anonymous #wanky wank #rant #ranty replies #opinions #replies #anti spn #destiel for ts #wank for ts #long post for ts

[squisherific]

Let us fill the Gruvia tag with some positivity! What are your top 5 Gruvia moments? :)

Good idea! ^^

1) Chapter 416 boob hug. No matter what’s come after, the excitement and the enjoyment, even years afterward, are still such fond memories for me. It was just such a surprise when it happened, even though we had been waiting months for Gray and Juvia to reunite. I knew we would get something good, but I never really thought it would truly be that. I had begun writing a fic at the time that had Gray and Juvia in that exact same kind of hug for the same kind of reason, so my wishes literally came true with that moment. Juvia was truly going to walk away from Gray forever, but he STOPPED her. He HUGGED her. He sought her for comfort. And in that moment, as Juvia held him to her, that ice mage, who had been cold for so long, felt warm. My HEART. ;_; Plus, it’s always nice to see Gruvia physical contact hee. And it was just a nice cap to a really great arc, as well. And IMO they have been practically canon since this moment. If the series had ended there it would have been implied canon.

2) 499 Gray and Juvia sacrifice themselves for each other. I wanted Juvia to “die” since the end of the GMG arc. I thought it was important for their storyline, so I thought it needed to happen. BUT, I never imagined Gray would sacrifice himself at the same time. It’s an incredibly powerful thing in Japanese literature for lovers to suicide together. And Gray and Juvia did it out of a deep love for each other. As Gray corrected himself, “I didn’t want to hurt a friend, NO, I didn’t want to ever hurt YOU.” Juvia said Gray’s words made her happy for a reason. Gray right then and there told her she was so much more than just a friend to him. Also, this is the only scene that has every made me cry while reading FT. Juvia’s parting words in Gray’s mind did that to me. Those pages were beautiful. Plus, I love all the parallels between Juvia and Ur here. And I STILL think Gray totally kissed her when she was dying in his arms. So, I hope that is confirmed one day. *-*

3) Gruvia Unison Raid. The rest of these were really hard to choose between and put in any kind of order. So I’m going simply by how surprised and excited I was when I read them. And the Unison Raid was super exciting and fun at the time. Especially in fandom since I was still pretty new to the FT fandom then and could just enjoy all the art and colorings, and happiness about it. It was the unison raid of LOVE after all. ^-^ And they had those beautiful color pages, and the looks and smiles they gave each other, and the hand holding, and the team work, and it was just such a happy and enjoyable development! And Chelia (and perhaps Lyon lol) was added on the growing list of in-story Gruvia shippers lmao!

4) I’m here with you. I got spoiled on this one, so it wasn’t a surprise to me when I read it, but it was still such an amazing moment. I love that Gray took Juvia’s hand to comfort her. I love that they were riding so close together, and Juvia had her arms around Gray. I loved that Juvia remained serious and solemn even after Gray consoled her and said those important words. And I loved the foreshadowing of what was to come. It guaranteed that both Gray and Juvia would somehow be involved with this mysterious Silver character, and much angst would follow. ^-^

5) Ok, I’m going to cheat now, because I can’t choose lmao. 453, Gray thinking about Juvia during the Silver fight, the sensory link, and Gray saving Juvia from Ultear are all such important moments to me for different reasons. 

453 obviously had Gray being a lot more honest and straightforward with Juvia than ever before. He was all cute and flirty when offering her the candy bar. He admitted that he was grateful to have her, always by his side. And he broached the subject of Juvia’s feelings all on his own, by promising to give her an answer. That in itself, was simply a reinforcement of what I personally already thought was obvious from 416. That Gray’s feelings for Juvia were mutual, otherwise there would have been no point of giving her a new answer. It was just such a big deal, and it gave us something to look forward to for their development in the current arc, while also casting a giant angst shadow over their heads. So, it was exciting.

Gray thinking about Juvia during his Silver fight was AMAZING. I had read the spoilers at the time, and it has said Gray had pictured all of his friends, and Ur, and Juvia, etc.. And I thought, oh well at least he thought of her. BUT, I had no idea until we got the chapter, that she had taken up such a blatantly large part of Gray’s thoughts! And it was a whole new panel, too, unlike all the others which were repeats. And she looked so beautiful and was calling his name so lovingly. And it was just wonderful to have it confirmed how Gray REALLy thinks of Juvia. Not some annoying, inconvenience, but a beautiful girl who’s affections and presence he treasures. ;_;

The Sensory link during the Meredy fight needs to be mentioned, because it was when I a) became a huge Juvia fan because she was so badass, and b) when I realized that Gruvia would one day be canon. And that thought excited me immensely, because I had never considered the possibility before. Juvia’s feelings always came off as just a running gag to me at the time. And yet here the author was, reinforcing Juvia’s feelings by reminding us that yes, she truly LOVES Gray. And that Juvia as a character, would not be tortured like this, if her feelings wouldn’t one day be reciprocated by Gray. And the idea of their relationship being developed to that point thrilled me. So it was a combination of things that just made this fight so great!

And finally Gray saving Juvia from Ultear. Again, it reinforced my new love for this ship. When Ultear was about to slice Juvia’s head off, while saying that doing so would be taking away Gray’s future, and then Gray swooped in and saved her in such an epic way? LOVE. Because it was Gray’s side to match Juvia’s earlier fight. And Gray looked so pissed, and he was holding Juvia so tenderly, it was a lovely panel. *-* Even Juvia’s little subconscious smile when Gray said he wants to live with his comrades was again that parallel to Juvia’s earlier fight with Meredy. ^-^

*honorable mention* Juvia’s reveal and recollections of her and Gray living together during the Avatar arc. That was so huge. They LIVED together. 6 MONTHS. To the point that Juvia caught Gray’s stripping habit. Domestic Gruvia! Training, eating and working together! They had a home and a life together! Just wow. ;_;

#gruvia #fairy tail #gray fullbuster #juvia lockser #I cheated so much with this list lmao