#they’re so compelling hypothetically tho….

[comradekatara]

Would it be too broad a question to prompt for thoughts on a Yue & Azula dynamic? Idk if it’s rly that fun to ruminate on hypotheticals when Yue is the moon post s1, but I mean, we have contemplated the potential dynamics of Yue with other characters beyond s1 so I don’t see why not. Tbh I just thought it was interesting bc Yue has completely internalized her role within patriarchy as a symbol of the motherland etc etc. & Azula I think everyone esp w/in fandom tends to misconstrue as like. Autonomous & selfish & ontologically evil when her whole Deal is subservience to a “divine” patriarch & being molded into a perfect weapon. Or am I only thinking they would have an interesting dynamic bc as you’ve rightly said before, sokka & Azula as foils are already rly compelling & Yue is the female sokka?

lmfao yeah you basically said it all. yue and azula are both mirrors to sokka and also mirrors to each other. they each have “duties to their father and to their people” that they embody above all else, sublimating their personhood to perform obedience to their respective patriarchs. yue performs this role through denying her own agency and sacrificing herself, azula performs this role through dehumanizing herself and molding herself into a weapon, and sokka does all of the above. but in a more literal sense, yue and azula are both princesses (obviously sokka is also the son of the chief, but it’s a different situation because he’s also not a Girl) and so this is already a huge commonality between them, considering they’re the only two real princesses in the entire show (although you could argue that toph and mai functionally had similar upbringings). I think a lot of people envision azula and yue working together in an AU wherein the war never happened and so there was international cooperation that allowed for them to meet. that, or an AU wherein yue survives the siege and eventually meets azula. neither of these hypotheticals are particularly interesting to me, but I could see them getting along, because yue likes nerdy dorks who make bad jokes and kill people, and azula likes beautiful girls with shiny hair who are nice to her (to be honest I don’t even think they have to be beautiful, I think they just have to be nice to her, and being absolutely gorgeous is just a bonus). but it’s also kind of a pointless ship to me because there’s no real scenario wherein they’d interact, and sokka already functions as a proxy between both of them in the first place. and is he not dykey enough to satisfy your desires??? for shame.

#normally I understand ppl who want to make existing ships lesbian (im only human after all) #but with sokka ships im like . that is a lesbian you’re just looking at him from the wrong angle #sokkayue is literally a butch/femme couple…….. #and sokkazula COULD be lesbians but everyone who ships them seems intent on exaggerating their heterosexuality so I cannot actually fw them #they’re so compelling hypothetically tho…. #zukkacore #asks #analysis #yue #azula #sokka #I did write one AU a LONGASS time ago wherein azula and sokka switched places in the narrative #and in THAT scenario azula/yue could be cute #but like. get real.

[inkdemonapologist]

I just pictured if henry was a perfect bendy or being that cartoon bendy guy from batdr. after he saves everyone henry would have devil horns and a bowtie and gloves left on his body.

LMAO I don't think he'd keep articles of clothing in that hypothetical, everyone else is perfectly able to change clothes. Horns and the four-fingered toon hands are super likely, and I imagine I'd want to ponder if Something Weird Is Up With His Mouth just because bendy's smile is such a constantly significant point in batim. That'd be tough to design, though, so I'm not sure; I'm not planning on fussing with it uNLESS A SUPER COMPELLING REASON ARISES tho xD

but speaking of BatDR is it just me or do some of the recent BatDR hints have concerning implications for Escape AU???? The AU takes place immediately following BatIM, around 1963, and I know folks are saying BatDR is likely an AU itself but all this talk of Nathan reviving the franchise in the 1970s.... can you imagine how much of a weird and frightening feeling it would be to see those cartoons coming back? Sammy's old fears of being watched spiking to the forefront when he starts seeing That Smile pop up on TV unexpectedly? Tom's desperate horror that the Ink Machine he designed might start up again, somewhere? How much, and how, will Nathan approach their own history as he brings this back into the public consciousness? ESPECIALLY if they did eventually make it out to California with Henry -- it would feel like the demon had followed them. They're not in a position to do much about it, but like, gosh, wHAT A WILD THOUGHT.

#i know you have questions you always do #Escape AU

[sireneia]

♕ ♕ ♕ ♕ ♕!!

( get to know the rper )

Send me a ♕ for me to describe favorite rp character of someone else’s.

ah, True Positivity Hours!! while i can just ramble about like. characters in general i’ll go for specific portrayals tho i’ll try not to clog up notifs by trying to avoid @-ing them 

@/cavaliant’s diarmuid is a joy unto this earth. i can’t sing this muse enough praises honestly. the amount of thought dusk has put into him. diarmuid is often a character people say has no personality whatsoever but dusk really does go into the lines we get, reads between them, and looks at things from a scope beyond just “what does this character say” and thinks about what his relationships say about him, his actions, etc. i live for looking at character development beyond the words explicitly shared, and i now stan diarmuid so thanks dusk LMAO. i just think it’s interesting to see this charming boy and his tendency to be nice to people, what it means to him and the self-sacrifice he goes by burying his feelings, etc. really gives me a newfound appreciation for his scenes.

@/hamartio’s hector takes you through the evolution of a character throughout time. you feel the boisterousness that means well in hector’s teenage years to the way he mellows out and how that’s a direct consequence of fatherhood and him rising up to the plate as the new marquess. it’s always cool to see, and equinox has fantastic metas on hector’s growth and what taking armads means for the lord and his motivations for doing so. this is a man who so deeply cares for others, even if it means accepting a curse, and i love every time equinox talks about it and explores it! also equinox really does take a great look at fatal flaws and tragic heroes which is [chef’s kiss]

@/drakslay’s marth is extremely fun to read! as someone who doesn’t know much about the archanea games, ( i promise everyone i’ve got fe11 and will pick it up again at some point LIKE I REALLY WANT TO... ) it’s super compelling to read their posts despite my lack of knowledge! soji’s got a way to take even looking at a hypothetical beach marth alt as interesting by tying it back to the archanea games’ worldbuilding and plot! that’s so cool!! i also think marth’s dialogue in soji’s posts is so charming?? from what i know about how marth speaks, it really captures his voice. i already do enjoy marth from what little i saw of him in fe11, and i look forward to liking him more and more!

@/sacredseals’s narcian is something to truly commend. how tf did nora get me to feel things about this man I DON’T KNOW HOW THIS HAPPENED !!! except sike i in fact know exactly how it happened. nora’s narration and metas ( whether they’re posted publicly or not ) really dive deep into the nitty-gritty of little details in fe6 we’re given and expand them in such cool ways, and it really makes me surprisingly soft for this villain that you’re intended to despise and find pathetic. also, nora’s voice for narcian’s dialogue is so fun and colorful to read! nora u may not have english as ur first language but you are KILLING it!!!

and then i give a shout out to YOUR lucina! i think you capture her voice really well in the threads and dash commentary posts i’ve gotten to see, but i also adore how you weave in the tempest trials plot line in as well. as someone who is still following heroes content and also someone who thinks the verse itself has plenty of potential, it’s great to see someone else also explore that direction and keep it as a consistent part of her character! i know some people might think the plots of the tt+ are kinda contrived, but legit masked marth is interesting to watch: there’s real stakes, she interacts with so many characters canonically, and she has to weigh what should and shouldn’t be said as a time-traveler. she knows all these people, and what a character does with that knowledge is always intriguing to see.

#// i tried to keep it to active people but there's this one person who's no longer in this community who i like. CONSTANTLY think about-- #// --how great their blogs were and like god i hope they're doin ok and havin fun these days #astraseason #+. / inbox. #+. / ooc. #long post ---

[tonyglowheart]

Since you asked for clarification, I was asking under what circumstances, if any, you think it is morally unacceptable to ship fictional characters. But thank you for your previous response, I laughed.

oooh okay. well this gets thorny and tricky, as is the wont of anything to do with like morality and ethics and nonesuch.

I think it’s hard for me to say definitively there are circumstances where something is NEVER okay, ever, for every single person? I mean probably if we get down to it, I can start nuancing some limits…

hmmm okay I… may be straying outside my lane here, but I feel like an analogy can be made with kink-related stuff? Are you shipping for yourself or shipping to participate in a community? And is your community spilling over and disrupting others who maybe do not consent to be participating in some of the conventions of your community? which kind of gets to the “are you being an anti and harassing other people” kind of dealio. I mean, I’m not necessarily morally decrying, say, ship wars. I’m just saying that’s where I start thinking it gets shitty.

In terms of like… “what is your comfort level shipping one character and another”? …without any concrete examples, I’m inclined to say if they’re fictional, then they’re your playground. If you personally aren’t comfy with a ship, then don’t feel forced to participate in it, I think? But be aware if you ship something that other ppl may take offense to it, and their objections may be valid for themselves. If THEY start harassing YOU for something you ship, then they’re in the wrong. Like people want to make the argument that “fiction affects” reality, which I think is valid, but also I think arguments that that’s a fallacy are valid too on the basis that shipping communities form a relatively smaller facet of society and hardly affect overarching societal structures the way, say, compulsory heterosexuality and homophobia do.

RPS is also not my personal cup of tea generally, but I can see the appeal, and this starts getting a bit more sticky but like, again my view on this is like the kink thing, if you’re keeping it contained either to yourself or your community and aren’t harassing ppl about it, it’s… less bad? I mean RPS does get stickier because we’re dealing with real actual people who could be uncomfortable about what the RPS is in relation to them, without their consent.. But I’m hardly going to decry it completely as unilaterally immoral. (edit: OKAY I WAS SPEED-READING and only just saw the specification of “fictional characters” yeeaaahh whoops)

I’m glad you liked my other response tho lol, I was like… yeah asked cold, I had no clue how to respond. I mean, even now, I’m not really sure what brought this on and why me of all people (if you are genuinely asking because you trust my judgment then oh my god I am so sorry anon lmao).

I mean also, for context, I sit on like… a handful of Problematique™ ships lmao so I’m hardly going to start throwing stones (glass houses, etc etc ya know). And like. I can see why people would be uncomfortable with some of the ships I like(d)! And that’s fine, they’re allowed to do that! But also like. I like what I like lmao and I sure don’t have any, like, Catholic guilt about it. It’s more like.. being discrete because the prevailing atmosphere is just Rough and I want to avoid getting on like.. the purity wank crowd’s radar, just in case :’)

(okay I’m editing to add some more thoughts or ramblings or stream of consciousness I guess)

okay so. here’s the thing. I think there’s some things that SEEM like they’re a no-brainer. “no incest. no pedophilia. no abuse ships.” that spiel. But like. the thing is those things aren’t neeeecessarily as clear-cut as they may seem on the surface. Fiction is created; two characters that ended up siblings might have started off as childhood friends and then the author decided they worked better as siblings. Characters that were siblings up until the final draft might have ended up as neighbors. And god I don’t know if I’ve ranted or not about “abuse ships” but where do we even start with THAT. How do we even define what that is. Are we also, then, discounting some canon ships that perhaps have abusive overtones in some of the interactions? Like... a lot of the way straight dudes write straight relationships... to me can be read as kind of abusive.

My other gripe with “pedophilia” is the overuse of it as a moral signalling buzzword. Like, I get why! It’s visceral! it’s the kind of strawman that’s like “oh what, are you defending pedophilia?” but I also have seen it unironically used to describe a hypothetical relationship between a fictional 16 year old (the character wasn’t even 16 in the series) and someone else over 20. My dudes I’m p sure the 16-year-old is post-pubescent. Or at least I sure hope so.

Like ultimately, I think the thing with fictional character is like... they’re fiction. no individual persons were harmed in the imaginings of what’s happening with this fictional character. And with shipping and fanfic, I think it’s a character-driven genre (I think someone wrote a post about this some time?). I can see where characters can be simplified down to sets of tropes or character dynamics that can be compelling to people and make them want to imagine those dynamics in other settings. And it’s possible for some of the other things to become set-dressing.

Speaking to when I think it’s WRONG to ship something.... I guess most of my answers are “when it translates harmfully somehow into meatspace”? Like if someone is using shipping as performative activism, or shipping as relationship advice (which isn’t to say ALL shipping is bad as relationship advice). But like. The purpose of shipping is not relationship advice, so any relationship advice that comes out of shipping is incidental and like.. a pleasant byproduct. But I don’t think it should be an explicit goal or aspiration, to only ship what seems to be idealized. Also that just flat-out sounds boring to me lol. How can you have that sweet sweet H/C if you don’t have any H, ya know?

#I think ultimately you just gotta decide what you're personally comfy with #and what you're not #and it's fine if it's different from the person's next to you! #if you decide shipping a certain ship is Wrong that's your prerogative #just don't go around being a shit to other ppl about it #I wank about seeing performative outrage but I also go in the tags and I sort of know there's going to be SOME #and then I just vent and block so I don't see it anymore #like if you want to put up a ''xx shippers don't interact'' sign that's your prerogative too #I might get salty about it tho lmao as a Problematique shipper #but again: I try to keep it contained! I don't tag with public tags #I try to censor to prevent things showing up in searches #etc etc #anyway what are your thoughts? #I am curious what brought this on - if anything did bring it on #Anonymous #asks answered

[bernieh]

In which we overthink an Overthinking It about “Love Shack”

dean interesting theory about "Love Shack." https://www.overthinkingit.com/2016/02/15/what-is-the-love-shack/

Overthinking It On the Nature of the Love Shack - Overthinking It What were the B-52s actually singing about? What makes a shack a love shack? Who puts glitter on a mattress, anyway

bernie no one PUTS glitter on the mattress, glitter just gets everywhere, on your clothes, on the floor, on the mattress, on the front porch

dean I accept your explanation

noah good overthinkin'

he missed the “YOU’RE WHAT?!” which seems very important, no?

dean excellent point. but maybe it's, like, "you're here??" he wasn't expecting her to show up until the party had thinned out a bit

noah If she’s going to the Love Shack to tell him she’s pregnant, that supports the divergent perspectives theory — she’s remembering it fondly (and fantastically, e.g., glitter?) because that’s where she hooked up with this guy, she’s going there because he hangs out there — and he’s there because he’s dude-ing it up with a party and partying

dean /gif mind blown

and, people have said that "tin roof, rusted" means pregnant, although I forget why

noah when I looked that up, a lot of folks cited Love Shack as the source of the slang ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

dean the article doesn't address the huge question of the song, that I've mentioned before... that they never tell us what to do if we see a faded sign on the side of the road, etc., etc.

it's the first line. I'M WAITING THE ENTIRE SONG FOR THEM TO COMPLETE THIS SENTENCE, AND IT NEVER HAPPENS.

(but perhaps the argument can be made that this creates a sense of tension that makes the song more compelling...?)

I had never before considered the notion that the second sign says “Stay Away Fools Cause Love Rules At the Love Shack”.

my initial reaction is skepticism, since I think if you want people to stay away, you would just say "stay away fools." and definitely wouldn't say, essentially, stay away from here because it is fun, or compassionate, or whatever.

but, I can't rule it out. maybe they want the sign to attract people to come, and it's reverse psychology. that interpretation is certainly supported by the fact that there's another sign telling people how close they are. but then again, we don't know who put up these signs.

I guess even my assumption that they're two separate signs is a leap. it could be one sign that says "15 Miles to the Love Shack, Stay Away Fools [and perhaps Cause Love Rules etc.]"

there's a clear implication that, like, if you see this sign, that means you're in the right place and keep going.

however, I would like that to be made more explicit, and grammatical

bernie sure u can technically interpret that the (second) sign says “stay away, fools, cause love rules at the Love Shack”, but then u can interpret it to say literally the rest of the song lyrics if u want.  it’s pointless.  to me the sign clearly says “Stay Away Fools”, and it’s totally natural, it’s a playful way of saying we are awesome and fun and not for the hypothetical fool.

dean "u can interpret it to say literally the rest of the song lyrics if u want" - you could, of course, but that would destroy the notion that different singers = different personae and would undermine the entire proposed structure. I can't go that far

bernie well to me interpreting the sign to include the next line of the song is going pretty much just as far, it’s dumb.

dean I think scholars are divided on that point, you certainly present a legitimate point of view.

bernie the next line does make sense as an explanation to why fools should stay away, but no sign would say that.  the sign says Stay Away Fools.

the card says Foops.

dean now, if you had to guess, are there one or two signs

bernie it’s like a sign that says “BEWARE OF DOG BECAUSE YOU COULD GET BITTEN, IT DOES THAT SOMETIMES"

no, the sign says Beware of Dog.

we can’t know if there’s more than 1 sign of course, but i def read it as two.  the first is 15 miles away, the second is closer to it and thus more descriptive.

in fact that second sign is at the door of the Shack.

dean and you posit that it's not calling everyone who drives by a fool who should stay away, but rather is saying that fools should stay away and, by implication, non-fools should proceed.

bernie absolutely.  why would u tell everyone to stay away.

dean because it's like the Masons or something, it's a public thing but everyone knows what goes on there is secret. or maybe the people who run the Love Shack didn't put up the sign.

I do like the sense of movement in your scenario

bernie that’s a stretch.  all of this is a stretch, & u can call me a buzzkill as usual but man, it’s just a place where they party and sure maybe do some casual bangin'

i appreciate the search for the meaning of tin roof, rusted, and maybe some other utterances, but the rest of the lyrics are incredibly straightforward as to what kind of place this is

dean the other obvious problem is that knowing you're 15 miles away from something doesn't much help you get there.

if we knew whether there was an arrow or something on the sign, then we'd know whether or not they really do want you to stay away. but unfortunately we don't know that

bernie well, i know that there are 2 signs, u can choose to continue to be ignorant if u want

ur driving north along I-95, u see a sign that says “15 miles to Newport Aquarium”.  as u get closer, u see a sign that says, “Newport Aquarium: ADVENTURERS ONLY!"

dean lol. I would totally have my theme park sign say "stay away fools"

so you think "straight ahead" is implied. ok

bernie another tidbit about this song: whenever i hear Jimi’s “Fire” i can’t help but think of Love Shack because they have the same bass line

comment: “Atlanta Highway” is the municipal name for the stretch of US 78 that runs from Bogart eastward to downtown Athens, where it becomes Broad St, and then Oak St, before becoming 78 again in Oglethorpe county. So depending on how dead your author is, the Love Shack is located somewhere on the west side of Athens-Clarke County, not the Atlanta metro area.

noah Re: IF/THAT, if we’re following the divergent perspective, then one character is simply interrupting the other — sure, we never find out for real, but I’d imagine “15 miles to the” is a landmark that doesn’t say love shack on it

dean interesting.

noah Ok guys, take this road, when you see a faded sign at the side of the road that says 15 miles to the town of Foobar, take the first dirt road on the right

dean I would point out that the fact that the sign is faded, though, means that it's more likely to be for the Love Shack, and less likely to be for the University of Georgia or something

noah Sweet, thanks bro

dean but that is certainly not definitive.

noah That it’s faded means to me it’s some crappy, dusty, abandoned sign that no one notices except for kids who use it to mark their dirty dirty sex barn

bernie i do note the incongruity with the fact that a “faded sign at the side of the road” evokes a different setting than “headed down the Atlanta Highway"

noah The sex barn / is a filthy old place we / use to get some boninnnnnnnnnn

bernie unless, that’s the mystique in it - you’re driving along the highway, with polished signage everywhere, and then there’s just this one faded sign that doesn’t belong

noah (and yes, to consider that the sign might say “Stay Away Fools ‘Cause Love Rules At The Lo-o-ove Shack” is the true definition of “overthinking it.”)

dean so you take it as a given that if you don't understand that love rules, you are a fool.

and when I say "you", I mean Fred Schneider

bernie

bernie

doesn’t look like any highway i’ve ever seen

bernie

bernie

bernie 3 signs.

1. Shaque d’Amour 2. Stay Away Fools 3. Love Rules

dean so it doesn't just say, "stay away fools."

if we accept the video as definitive. which I don't know if we can, since it shows them all together in the car which undoes the logic of the competing narrative

bernie

noah this video is terrible

bernie

dean a goat. what does it MEAN.

bernie the sign says “Stay Away Fools” a lot more than it does “Stay Away Fools ‘Cause Love Rules at the Lo-o-ove Shack"

because there is a sign that literally says Stay Away Fools.

tho i agree we can’t accept the video as definitive.

dean no, I understand, but I bet you were surprised it even said "love rules."

noah there’s nothing in the rulebook that says they aren’t all in the same car!

bernie yes.  i got ur point.

noah it’s a baby goat. a KID

dean /gif omg

#love shack #overthinking it