#What tropes do you like in fanfiction but hate in canon?
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Some people have trouble understanding why I like certain tropes in fanfiction and not in the canon works, but it’s actually quite simple.
In fanfiction and what not, it’s all “what-ifs.” What if this person was a yandere? What if they did this or that? In canon, if a person is a yandere, that’s who they are. Thus, I judge them differently from their fandom counter parts for better or worse.
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As I post about rereading SVSSS for lore and characterization, and about sometimes ignoring canonical details for the sake of whatever story I want to tell / explore in fanfiction for fun, I want to make it clear that I don't make these changes because I think it makes a "better story" or that I can write a "better story". I don't even like using the term "fix-it" for my canon divergence AUs that avert some in-universe tragedy, even if it is the "correct" fandom term in some cases, because I don't think that SVSSS is a story that needs to be "fixed".
(Honestly, a lot of my minor alterations to canon's details are because I can't remember what exactly canon is and can't always be bothered to hunt for one sentence (which I may or may not remember existing at all) across multiple volumes, especially when I don't always think strict faithfulness to canon is that crucial to the main concept of what I'm doing. I wrote PINTWILF and several other fics before the official English translations were fully released, when checking minor details was an even greater pain in the ass. Sometimes, I'm cooking without the recipe in front of me because I just want to eat.)
Like, I have criticisms of SVSSS, definitely. When I first started writing SVSSS fic, I was more frank about this (fond but less fond of the characters and world than I am now), and I've talked about things I wished the story expanded on more. I think it has flaws. I know those flaws are a dealbreaker for many people. But it's not my story. I can't tell MXTX's story better, because I believe that every author's story belongs to them and only they know what they're trying to achieve, even when I may personally think that the story might have been stronger if it had done something differently or I'm ignoring some minor detail specifically because I don't really like it.
It's awkward, sometimes, occasionally being told by someone that they enjoyed my fic more than the original story. It's very flattering (I can't pretend I don't have an ego) and I don't think anyone means any harm by this, people enjoy stories or don't for many different reasons (enjoyment is not necessarily an indication of quality and I think engaging with fandom can often be more fun than just reading a story on its own by yourself), but it is a little awkward, especially when SVSSS is not an English / western story. I have an advantage appealing to western readers. Reading a translation of the original story, I know there are details of SVSSS going over my heard, references I'm missing, nuances I don't recognize, even as I endeavor to keep learning. I personally enjoy some of my fics more than SVSSS itself because I associate them with good experiences and a lot of them appeal to me personally in some way or another (all of my favorite tropes! we all have favorite tropes!), but they are built on the back of someone else's original work on the other side of the world, and I want to be respectful of that.
I don't want to compete or fix. I'm not trying to compete or fix, I think I would fuck it up if anyone seriously set that task on me, and I don't think that's a good way to view anything. I want to explore and appreciate. I'll type up a lengthy post at some point as to why I'm generally not interested in concrit on my fics (honestly, mostly it's because I'm not interested in being told that a reader hates the present tense and wishes I would rewrite the entire story, which has happened to me before), but I hope that doesn't come off as disinterest in the original story or its cultural context, or as me thinking even a little bit that any of my stories are flawless and/or better than the original.
I want to make a "why would you put two bad bitches (compliment) against each other like this?" joke here, but I also want to be clear: I think MXTX is by far the badder bitch (compliment) in this situation.
(Turning off reblogs, btw, because this post skews more on the personal side.)
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🌿Wyler Spring Fest 2024🌿
We are finally back with another wyler event - this time, in celebration of spring!
In spirit of spring, the event will revolve around change, transformation, bloom and renewal. All entries must be posted by March 20th - spring equinox.
Here are some FAQs regarding the event; for any others, feel free to shoot an ask! 💚
HOW DO I SIGN UP?
no sign up needed! this event is meant to be fun and casual. Simply create and share with the fandom!
WHAT ENTRIES ARE WELCOMED?
All kinds: fanfictions (no word limit - write as little or as much as you'd like), fanart, gifsets, moodboards, playlists, prompts and all other types of creations are considered a participance.
WHAT SHOULD I CREATE THOUGH?
Ah, NOW we're getting to the good part. This event invites you to create anything that comes to mind when you think about the themes of spring, change, transformation, and renewal - but since these themes are a bit broad, here is a list of non-mandatory prompts to help you get inspired:
Changes, transformations, bloom etc.
🍃Tyler's transformations into the hyde
🍃Wednesday and Tyler adjusting to... (their new relationship, to Tyler going to Nevermore, etc)
🍃Bodyswap
🍃 Genderswap (for example Girl!Tyler)
🍃Stories (or other creations) focused on trans characters
🍃Pollens of all sorts (sex pollens, truth pollens, go crazy!)
🍃Canon divergence
Reverse tropes (the ones we know and love... reversed)
☘️too many beds
☘️fake breakup (instead of fake relationship)
☘️divorce of convenience
☘️stuck apart
☘️love/hate at second sight
☘️fuck or... live? (instead of "we have to do it or we'll die", it's "if we do it, it'll kill us")
Reversal AUs
🌵Normie barista Wednesday, Nevermore student Tyler
🌵Wednesday Galpin and Tyler Addams
🌵Power swap (Wednesday becomes a hyde while Tyler gets visions)
🌵Wednesday helps Gates while Tyler is the sacrifice
🌵Thing is Tyler's. Elvis is Wednesday's
...and any other idea that comes to mind 💚
with any entry you post, make sure to tag #wylerspringfest2024, and mention the @weylerwritingevents blog. And most importantly: have fun!!!
#wylerspringfest2024#wyler#weyler#weyler fanfiction#wyler fanfiction#wyler writing event#writing event#fandom event#tyler galpin#wednesday fandom#wednesday addams#wednesday netflix#wednesday x tyler
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Long-ish Blorbo Ask Game
I'm bored, and fandom spaces are getting toxic again, so here's an ask game about your blorbo(s) for happy feels. People can send an ask with any of these emojis and you can answer about any one of your blorbos (or multiple/all). Askers can also specify blorbos if they know you like a certain character a lot. You can send me asks for this or just reblog it for yourself. All fandoms welcome. Go nuts.
Tagging some mutuals to get it started, but no pressure:
@shieldofiron @half-oz-eddie @californiaboytoybilly @rowanswriting @dirtbagdefender
🩷 Why are they your favorite?
❤️ How did you discover them/get into them?
🧡 Do you have anything in common with them?
💛 Do you have any polar opposite traits to them?
💚 What are your favorite added rep headcanons for them?
(queer labels, disabilities, nationalities, ethnicities, etc.)
🩵 What's a popular headcanon for them you just can't get behind?
💙 What's a popular headcanon for them that you adore?
💜 'Put that guy into situations' or 'take that guy out of situations'?
🤎 How far do your headcanons for them stray from canon material?
🖤 If they weren't from their source, what fandom universe do you think they would make the most sense in?
🩶 Alternatively, what fandom universe would they just perish in?
🤍 Do they need therapy?
💐 What are your favorite poly ship(s) for them, if any?
🌸 What are your favorite mono ship(s) for them, if any?
🌷 What are your favorite crossover ship(s) for them, if any?
🌺 What is their main love language, if any?
(can be platonic or familial)
🌹 What is their main hate language, if any?
🥀 If they were a real person you knew, do you think you'd like them as much as you do currently or get along with them?
🏵️ If they were a real person you knew, would you date them?
🌻 What song(s) do you associate with them?
🪻 What fanfiction/literary tropes do you associate with them?
🌼 Do you think they'd survive an apocalypse scenario?
☘️ Would you trust them with your life?
🍀 Are they more dependent or independent?
🌿 Are they a lover or a fighter?
🌱 Are they an optimist, a pessimist or a nihilist?
🪴 Are they moon-coded, sun-coded, star-coded, or something else?
🌾 What's a random skill you think they have that they just don't talk about, if any?
🌴 What's their family like? Did they come from a good home?
🌲 Do they like where they are in the world, or do you think they would get out and move somewhere better if given the opportunity?
🌳 What random thing would you do to them if you had the chance?
(put them in a jar, pet their hair, tell them they're good, anything you want)
🍕 What's their favorite food?
🥤 What's their favorite drink?
🏀 What's their favorite activity?
🛣️ What's their favorite place?
🥦 What's their least favorite food?
🍺 What's their least favorite drink?
🧩 What's their least favorite activity?
🛤️ What's their least favorite place?
😭 Do you think you'll ever get over or be normal about them?
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TF2 analysis - on cultural references, context as characterization, and how to analyze comedy
-taps mic- HELLO, TEAM FORTRESS 2 COMMUNITY !
A while back, I received an ask requesting analysis of one of my favorite video games of all time and special interest of 12+ years, and you know I just had to go and turn that into a several thousand word essay for the reading pleasure of the people.
Because that shit got way too long, I’ve decided to put it into a post of its own. Hopefully a big title and no previous context being necessary will give more people an incentive to read it. I spent a long time on it and I think it’s pretty cool, and I would love some nice attention for my effort. ;w;
The ask I received went a little something like this:
Below the cut, I will be replying to these questions individually. It touches on everything from Cold War propaganda to the media landscape at the game’s launch in 2007 to first-person shooters as a genre - all to gain a better understanding of author intent, expected audience reaction, characterization and themes.
Anon previously requested help writing more accurate fanfiction, and damn it, that is what they are going to get!! and MORE
Introductory disclaimer:
First of all, for clarity's sake: this analysis is going to specifically talk about TF2 as seen through a fandom lens. I'm going to be talking about the game as a piece of media, creator intention, and the fandom's reactions to the game and extended canon - that is, the slice of the TF2 fandom that is interested in the characters, in the world and in doing at least semi-faithful fanworks.
I will not be touching on TF2's wider playerbase or meme culture. I greatly enjoy both, but they are not relevant to the post I made that sparked this anon's questions (I will link this post in the replies, in case anyone is curious).
I also have to disclaim that any references I make to real world history in this post have to be taken with a hard grain of salt. I've done my best to fact-check everything, but I am not infallible! For a better understanding of the historical elements I talk about here, please do your own research, and approach my claims with a healthy amount of scepticism, same as you would any unsourced social media post.
(Readers may notice examples I give below primarily feature Soldier, Spy and Scout. This is because I feel I have the most solid grasp on the historical events and media that informs their characters, compared to the other classes. All the classes contain these contexts and meta complexities, but in an effort to not talk out of my ass too much, I have decided to focus on the characters I feel the most confident dissecting.)
>1) What tropes was the game parodying/what cultural contexts would you say are essential to understand, in order to better understand the game?
The characters of TF2 were specifically designed as satiric takes on national stereotypes depicted in American propaganda media during the Cold War. Two easy-to-explain examples to illustrate:
- Soldier embodies the ideal of a "red-blooded American" who is strong, brave, hyper-masculine, hates foreign superpowers, loves the vague ideal of "freedom" and firmly believes America is the greatest nation in the world. He prides himself on having personally murdered nazis in the past, despite actually having accomplished no such thing (comparable to the US taking a disproportionate amount of credit for defeating Nazi Germany in World War 2; at the time, WW2 was a very recent cultural memory that made for good propaganda fodder). He fears, hates and dehumanizes communists (as Soviet Russia was the US's highly-villified opponent during the Cold War). The satiric angle: he is depicted as so brainwashed by propaganda that he has become immune to facts and logic. He is horribly sadistic, brutal, paranoid and xenophobic. The ideal he is based on is portrayed as shockingly and disproportionally violent and illogical to the point of being laughable.
- Spy is based on how the US viewed France during the Cold War: as a weak, cowardly, “unmanly” nation. At the time, France was depicted this way because they were perceived to have surrendered to Nazi Germany early on in World War 2 out of cowardice. Spy is one of the least macho of the mercs, he is ineffective when fighting enemies head on, and his main method of attack is reliant on trickery and “not fighting fair.” The satiric angle: Spy isn't actually much of a coward - he is more intelligent, more tactical and more resourceful than many of the others, and simply doesn’t feel the need to risk his neck when he could be working smarter, not harder. The other characters are portrayed as a bunch of meatheads for picking on him. The negative stereotype he is based on is portrayed as largely unearned and ridiculous. (Though note that Spy is also depicted as an upperclass prick to contrast with Engineer being working class; in that dynamic, Spy is depicted as a pompous asshole, while Engie is depicted in a more favorable light. The characters are multi-faceted and no class is universally “better” or “worse” than the others, but right now I'm specifically focusing on the "Cold War stereotype" aspect.)
Notice how, while these two characters have different nationalities in-universe, they are both based on stereotypes seen through an American lens. Notice the way the American character is based on a comedically deconstructed ideal, while the character from a nation the US did not view favorably at the time is depicted as falsely judged by an unfair and ridiculous metric.
The entire TF2 cast and universe revolves on this axis! It takes old American ideals and prejudices and uses them for comedy, adding exaggeration and caveats to make those ideals look absurd.
It’s a parody of media produced in the US during the Cold War, which contained massive amounts of propaganda. It satirizes the political ideals that were glorified in said propaganda media.
Very important extra cultural context: this satiric depiction of old war propaganda was specifically designed to be instantly recognizable to TF2's central demographic at the time of release in 2007.
Older Valve games like TF2 were very specifically made to appeal to pop culture-savvy, nerdy young adult gamers. This demographic was expected to see the characters and think "oh hey, it's like a funny version of X character type I've seen in movies!"
Because those kinds of movies were still everywhere at the time. The Cold War ended in 1991. TF2 was released only 16 years later. To put this into perspective: the Legally Blonde movie came out 22 years ago, in 2001. Think about how many Legally Blonde memes are still floating around the web today, how fondly remembered this one movie is and how often it’s still referenced in contemporary media. Now consider that media produced during the Cold War was fresher in the cultural memory at the time of TF2′s release than Legally Blonde is for us today.
TF2 was never meant to be seen in a vacuum. It was always meant to be in conversation with old media that it expected everyone playing to be extremely familiar with.
I'll say that again: the cast of TF2 are based on Cold War stereotypes - comedically exaggerated - so they would clearly read as parodies to people in 2007.
Those are 3 different overlapping lenses to consider when approaching the characters.
The characters are more than just funny cartoon men with guns and an unusual amount of differing accents. They are commentary on older media trends.
Now, someone might ask - why did the developers choose this specific aesthetic and tone for their online shooter video game?
The developers have stated multiple reasons, including wanting the characters to be immediately recognizable both physically (they generally look like the stereotypical depictions they're based on) and audibly (the differing accents and regional dialects make it easy to identify which class is yelling in your ear mid-combat during gameplay).
However, I also have another theory:
It's been confirmed TF2's comedic tone was designed to combat a lot of negative aspects of shooters in the genre at the time of its creation. I have seen developers discuss that they were going for a lighthearted atmosphere to discourage player hostility.
I, personally, also think it is extremely likely the developers opted for satirizing old war propaganda partially in order to combat the tendency of other shooters often being war propaganda. Valve has always been a politically left-leaning company, with a history of depicting military-like forces and unchecked capitalism in a negative light (see the Half-Life and Portal series, respectively).
By depicting the cast of TF2 as generally unhinged, illogical and clownish, they were able to communicate to players: "War is dumb, nationalism is dumb, whatever Call of Duty has been telling you is cool is actually illogical and copying it makes you look like like an idiot. That being said, we all sometimes wish we could beat the shit out of other people in the desert with a shovel, so let's get our aggressions out in a safe, non-serious environment with no consequences. Come play pretend you're a murderous sadist blowing up equally unhinged people with us, it's silly, but it's so fun."
I believe everything from the cartoonishly over-the-top, non-permanent deaths to the deserted, remote environments, to the lack of any truly innocent or defenseless characters was all a carefully crafted foundation made to encourage players to make the informed decision to leave their inhibitions and moral hangups at the door. They wanted players to have fun and go nuts engaging in military-like violence, without encouraging pro-military attitudes in their playerbase.
For an example of a game that royally screwed up doing the same thing, just look at Overwatch - it tried to preach a "wholesome" vibe that was completely mismatched with its gameplay. Overwatch tries to justify extreme violence as Okay When Good Guys Do It To Bad Guys, which ... yeah, again, that is straight up modern military propaganda, on purpose or not (and knowing the US military’s tendency to pour money into video games that glorify war, “on purpose” isn’t as much of a stretch as one might think). Paradoxically, TF2 comes out both looking and feeling better to play, because it handles aligning player emotions VS in-game actions much more elegantly. It accounts for common pitfalls in its genre. OW jumps into those pitfalls with both legs and instead ends up looking shallow and nauseatingly twee.
Of course, all of this is personal speculation. Whether or not this was the reading that Valve intended, I do believe it's a big reason why TF2 has remained so profoundly loveable over the years - it uses its writing and art direction to put the player in the perfect mindspace to Fuck Shit Up.
It's a fantastic example of how to carefully and artfully craft something extremely stupid for maximum intended effect. It uses the strengths of comedy as a genre to its absolute fullest.
Unfortunately, because of cultural shifts since the game's release, newer fans do end up missing out on a lot of what makes this game so expertly done. Many newer fans don't come into the game with the base cultural knowledge it expected of its original audience. To gain a better grasp on the characters and enjoy this piece of media as it was intended, I think it will be extremely helpful to familiarize yourself with the material it is referencing.
For an introduction to media produced and influenced by the Cold War, I would recommend the Wikipedia article Culture during the Cold War as a starting point.
(I have skimmed, but not read, the full article; I encourage readers to be especially source-critical when engaging with pages like this that detail themes of history and propaganda - it's a starting point, not a finish line!)
>2) What themes/layers do you feel the fandom has lost sight of, over time? (or never really managed to acknowledge to begin with?)
Some of this is covered in the previous section, but I'll use this question as an opportunity to talk about another thing I feel is overlooked by fans (and, frankly, the writers of the newer comics too), especially when creating fanworks:
The fact that the characters are extremely dependent on their setup and narrative context to be likeable.
Something I think fandom culture struggles with in general is interpreting and handling fictional characters not as real, independent people who exist in a vacuum, but as the sum total of countless moving parts inside a narrative all working together to create the impression of a real person.
In a comedy, characters are especially dependent on presentation to feel like themselves. It is not enough to loyally recreate an arbitrary list of personality traits in order to create accurate fanworks - recreating the sorts of situations they get into, the kinds of people they interact with, and cherry-picking the information they have access to is neccessary for bringing out what makes the characters so charming!
This is especially important when interpreting and handling a cast made up exclusively of characters who are mean people with bad intentions, bad opinions and a complete lack of adequate self-reflection across the board.
Canon makes them all come off amazingly likeable, but this is because the writers were manipulating tone, relationship dynamics, setting, and much more to show off the characters at their most distinct, least detestable and absolute funniest.
Overlooking this aspect of writing comedy characters often leads to a very common pitfall in many, many fandoms out there - following the logic of a character's canon personality to a place they don't like, and getting rid of those personality traits to combat their own discomfort.
Making characters too kind, too understanding, too progressive, etc., is an endless source of micharacterization in fandoms in general, but especially in fandoms of media where the characters are a bunch of dicks in canon.
To be clear, I fully understand where this is coming from. Fans get attached to characters like these because they're funny (and intended to be loved!) - realizing that a character you really like would logically react in an unlikeable way if you put them into certain situations feels bad. No one wants to turn a character they love into something they find they don't love anymore.
But this is where carefully engineering your setup and narrative comes into play.
Example:
A lot of TF2 fans are queer. Queers flock to TF2 because let’s face it, the campy vibes and silly fun masculinity and weird women are like catnip to us.
But a lot of queer fans go into the fandom aspect of the game and find that ... wait, shit, these characters are not exactly pillars of progressiveness. Reconciling some of the extremist political views of the characters with queer narratives, with queer values, seems a daunting task to some. Because what’s a queer fan to do? Portray a character they love in a way that makes them unloveable? Painstakingly depict shitty, uncomfortable characterization in the name of “realism” that ultimately detracts from their own and other people’s enjoyment of the story? That’s not fun. Fandom is supposed to be fun. So, what, do they just portray the characters as miraculously having perfectly amicable social politics by the standards of the larger queer community in 2023?
Some do, of course, for their own comfort, and it’s understandable, but it’s not good storytelling. It’s an excessively shallow way of interacting with media - the fanfiction equivalent of confidently sitting down to write an in-depth, flowery review of a horror movie you watched with your hands over your eyes during all the scary parts. You cannot create fanworks that are even remotely faithful to the spirit of the canon while deliberately ignoring the core themes and author intention of the canon you’re working with. These things are, unfortunately, mutually exclusive. TF2 characters are meant to be wrong about most things politically. Hopefully my reply to the first question in this post adequately illustrates why that’s so important.
But the good news is that bastardizing canon in order to avoid making characters unlikeable also isn’t necessary.
There’s a reason Soldier, in canon mocks his enemies for everything from failing at masculinity to being disabled, yet doesn’t have a single homophobic line:
The people writing his lines figured it would detract from the character. It would hurt real people’s feelings and make the character less fun to play as, so they didn’t include it. No excuses, no explanation; it is simply omitted for the sake of likeability.
(For contrast, notice that the writers did not extend the same kindness to certain other minorities, like fat people - playing as Heavy fucking sucks when you’re fat, because every other class hurls fatphobic abuse at him. This is a fuck-up on the writers’ side; they failed to identify this type of humor as meaningfully detracting from the experience for a significant amount of players, and so ignorantly decided to include it.)
This is what I mean by “setup and narrative context.” I also like to call this “maneuvering”, because it involves selectively portraying a character in contexts and situations where they shine and instill the intended audience reaction, while steering them away from situations where they would logically act in ways that counteract how the audience is intended to feel about them.
Fanworks can absolutely do the same thing! Fanworks can even take the technique further, because they’re not bound by limited time and focus, the way the original work is!
Sticking with the above example of wondering What The Hell To Do when portraying a character who, due to the ideal he’s satirizing, should by all rights be on the wrong side of history in relation to queer rights, let me make a bold statement:
Soldier TF2 is not homophobic. He's a nationalist, a right-winger, a sexist, a xenophobe - but he's not homophobic.
Why? Because he just so happens to never encounter any gay people in canon. They happen to never cross his mind. He's thinking about other shit. If there's a Pride riot in Teufort, he just so happens to be looking the other way.
Soldier TF2 is not homophobic, because he can't think for himself. He's an idea, a fraction of a bigger narrative that he does not exist outside of.
And if he needs to encounter gay people in a fanfiction, don’t just passively follow the logic of his character to that uncomfortable place none of us enjoy going to - use that maneuvering! Make him misinformed, make him misunderstand, give him incomplete information - the character is not only a face with personality traits attached, his soul is also in the context of the story!
Make him homophobic, but he's pretty sure only Europeans can be gay (just look at them!), and it's already so damn sad that they weren't born in beautiful, paradisical AMERICA, so he pities them instead of hating them. Make him think he's successfully being homophobic, but he has misunderstood what a gay person is and thinks it's a particularly venomous type of snake (men who kiss other men are fine, why would he care about that when there are HORRIBLE HOMOSEXUALS slithering around in the desert that he needs to go blow up right now before they bring this glorious nation to ruin). Make him homophobic, but literally "phobic" - he's shaking and crying hiding inside a cupboard, and his newly-outed gay friends have to lure him out with canned meat and a trail of small American flags, treating him like a feral cat that needs a little time and space to get used to people.
That's funny. It's likeable, it's charming. He isn't portrayed as a good person, or woke in a way that clashes with the themes of his character, but with a little maneuvering, he is faithful to what makes him such a legendary character in canon - being a silly caricature that brings us joy.
If Soldier himself needs to be gay? There are ways to make it happen. Same approach. Get creative. Make it silly. Go for thematically appropriate comedic explanations, not cop-outs or realism*.
That is what I think the TF2 fandom is lacking - understanding of how to manipulate context to make a character feel like their own unique, lovable selves.
Characters are not just visuals and personality traits. They are also what happens to them, what they conveniently find out, what they happen to miss.
This is the same for every story, but it is especially important to understand in a comedy. Doubly so in a whimsical, hyper-violent, morbid comedy like TF2.
It's one of the most important layers to be able to recognize, and an even more important one to be willing to try to recreate.
*Unless you feel like doing a deliberate deconstruction, in which case, go ham, sometimes actively engaging with canon means doing some real weird stuff to it to make a certain point on a meta level. This is obviously different from the issues I described above.
>3) "even the newer official comics don't even seem to really "get" the original game" … I've had a nagging sense for years now that the TF2 comics don't really match the game, tonally -- which has admittedly soured my enjoyment of them -- but I've never been able to put two and two together and fully determine why that is. What would you say they've failed to "get" about the work they're based off of?
While I very much love the newer comics on their own merits, I do think they are wildly removed from the game, and lack a lot of depth by comparison.
I believe the greatest failing of the comics, especially the long-form comic, is that the writers do not seem to be aware of either of the subjects I covered above.
They do not handle the satirical aspect well. The newer comic writers don't even really seem to be aware that there is a satirical aspect - they treat the world as just a silly version of mid-1900′s media, with a narrow focus on silver age comics (which were primarily superhero comics, not an easy genre to match with TF2′s more grounded setting - see the comic’s limp attempt at doing a Superman parody with Sniper) + a dash of the Man’s Life magazines (would have been a good match, if not for the fact that it’s primarily used as aesthetics, with no attention given to themes the way the game does with its own media references). They attempt to write parody only, and even the parody aspect is a hollow effort. Crucially, the writers don't seem to have much of an opinion of the old media properties they're parodying, and without opinions to guide a parody, it becomes shallow and lifeless. "Mid-1900′s media was a bit silly, right?" isn't enough of a hot take to justify its existence. It needs an axis on which to spin to feel complete.
Reiterating the point I made in my answer to question 1: the game's satirical aspect circled the point that was "American media made during the Cold War pushed a narrative that was illogical and ridiculously misaligned with reality."
Its absurd humor is grounded in reality and follows a thematic red thread that the comic does not. As a result, the comic (again, primarily later entries) loses a lot of the sting and edge of the game.
Even though the comic attempts to be more serious and "dark" at certain points, the much more silly and easy-going game (and Meet the Team videos, not to mention) comes out looking more mature, interesting and layered, even though many of the layers remain subtextual. The game is fully married to comedy and has no intention of "getting real", but it is loyal to the spirit of satire. It has opinions. It has bite.
In the game and early supplementary material, there is a dread and horror in the subtext that the comics tried to bring to light later on, but the comic writers didn't know what the scary thing behind the curtain was.
The scary thing was - is - the Cold War.
The scary thing is the dread injected into the genre it's satirizing by people who wanted American readers and movie-goers to be afraid. Scaring people into compliance, into finding a sense of safety and comfort in their national identity, was the entire purpose of many, many pieces of media released at the time.
The comic writers didn't notice the subtext and figured they had to make up their own reasons for why the world of TF2 is so utterly fucked.
They didn't understand the cultural context, and they missed the mark entirely.
This also hindered the comic writers' ability to reproduce the game's humor and characterization. Without understanding where exactly the game's humor was coming from or why the characters were so likeable despite being horrible people, they lacked direction. They made the characters at the same time too impassionate, too stupid, too uncaring, and too nice. All together, the characters became less interesting, less likeable.
Example:
- In the game, Spy was not intended to be Scout's father. Spy having a relationship with Scout's mother emphasized Spy's craftiness and intelligence (undermining the enemy team not only through brute force, but through infiltrating their personal lives), and showed off the strengths of his aforementioned "softness" and sentimentality (he's the only mercenary shown to have consistent luck with women). It also emphasized the flaws in Scout's worldview, and his status as the team underdog, and showed a clear contrast to Scout's non-existent love life. Spy came out of the situation funny and likeable because he 1. was portrayed as cool and capable in a way the other mercs aren't, and 2. his softer side is simultaneously humorously endearing, consistent with the rest of his characterization, and highly informed by the satirical aspect of his character in a way that clicks perfectly thematically. Scout comes out of the situation likeable because his ego is balanced out by his bad luck - you can simultaneously see that he's trying too hard and why he's trying too hard. Spy and Scout's dynamic in-game is also fun and interesting, because you have a tough, hyper-violent, wannabe-macho young man who is desperate to gain the respect of both his team and his enemies getting freaking owned by a guy who is nowhere near the impressive-tough-guy ideal Scout strives to embody. The game's satirical points inform the characters and their actions, which gives the comedy depth and nuance, which in turn makes all characters involved fun to watch and easy to get invested in. It is the establishing of and subsequent pointing-and-laughing-at an ideal that produces engaging, character-driven comedy in this situation.
- By contrast, the comics decided that Spy was Scout's father. Spy's motives for getting involved with Scout's mother is no longer about gaining intel on his enemies. In this version of events, his motives are reduced to merely wanting to reconnect with an old flame. This completely undermines the dynamic described above, for multiple reasons: the situation no longer shows Spy as having a particular skillset that sets him apart from the other mercs, he is no longer portrayed as emotionally "softer" than the others (in fact, having left a poor woman to raise and feed 8 kids on her own while he was off enjoying his upperclass life makes him look incredibly cold in a way that is distinctly unfunny; I don’t think the writers thought this part through), Scout's comedic poor luck is no longer on display, and the "macho character is humiliated by the type of guy he respects the least" satirical aspect no longer works. There is an attempt to replace it with a mutual "ugh, I'm related to this guy?" running gag, but it's a very pale substitute for the layered, strongly characterized, thematically appropriate dynamic present in the original game. Spy comes out of it looking like more of a cowardly, cold-hearted fuck-up than a hilariously brilliant tactician with a heart. Scout comes off way too pitiable, because he is not responsible for his own misery here, and the person horribly bullying him and picking apart his self-esteem on the battlefield is his absent father who abandoned him as a child. He's not an objectively badass character who nonetheless fucks himself over in humorous ways trying to chase an ideal that objectively sucks - he's just a regular shitty guy who ended up in bad circumstances because of things outside of his control.
The comic writers didn't understand what Spy and Scout respectively represented in the game, and because of this, they didn't realize they were taking the characters off the rails and making them much less interesting as a result. They didn't realize they were killing off an endless source of comedy that supported the game's satirical angle in a fun, unique, dynamic way.
It resulted in a flat, flavorless subplot. It had some superficial attempts at "heartwarming" moments ...
... but here's my take: if the writers wanted to include more warmth and sincerity in the comics, wouldn't it have been way more heartwarming if Spy started treating Scout as his son even though he wasn't?
Would it not have been way more endearing to see him look out for his girlfriend's child, not because he has any personal ties to him himself, but because he knew if anything happened to Scout, his mother would be devastated?
Why not build from there? Why not make it an active choice? Why not preserve the existing dynamic and themes, and just follow that narrative thread to its logical conclusion?
Spy has an established sentimental side. Scout is desperate for approval. The reluctant surrogate father/son development practically writes itself. It would have been such a good way to explore TF2's themes more explicitly, too!
But again, the comic writers did not seem to realize the game even had themes.
I do like the newer comics. I do think they're really fun, and I did even enjoy the "Spy is Scout's father" subplot in its own way. But this complete inability to identify the game's themes, and thus the source of all its comedy, and thus the red thread defining characterization - it resulted in supplemental material that was lackluster, directionless and unable to scratch the same itch the game does.
They're good comics, but they're hardly TF2 comics.
>4a) … Sheerly out of curiosity, how do you feel Expiration Date holds up, in comparison?
Similar to the way I dislike Spy being revealed to be Scout’s biological father for coming off as a stilted, superficial attempt at being “heartwarming,” I also immensely dislike later supplementary material trying to promote Ms. Pauling to Scout’s recurring love interest for the exact same reason. Expiration Date pushes this subplot way past its breaking point and shows off extremely well why the “jerk characters are secretly a bunch of softies” treatment is so deeply, deeply out of place in TF2.
Back in the early comics, Scout hitting on Miss Pauling was played as a joke at his expense. He was an idiotic, sexist guy incapable of talking to a pretty woman without trying to fuck - she was a highly skilled and deviously manipulative minor character who mostly existed to show off how dangerously competent the Administrator and her people were. Scout acting like an utter dumbass too entrenched in his own limited worldview to notice what was happening right in front of him was important characterization for him, Miss Pauling’s quiet, calculating efficiency was important characterization for her boss, and their clashing personalities set the tone for the dynamic between the entire team of mercenaries and the conspiracy going on right under their noses.
Expiration Date chose to eliminate these layers and invent a completely new conflict for these two specific characters to go play with in a corner, which had nothing to do with their original characterization or the larger plot. Scout is now portrayed as being genuinely in love with Pauling, even noticing small details about her mannerisms and knowing about some of her interests, even though the entire point of their original interactions were that Scout was so busy trying to live his tough-guy-with-a-pretty-girl-on-his-arm fantasy he did not bother to listen to or learn anything about the women unfortunate enough to cross his path, allowing Pauling to carry out her job without causing suspicion.
Instead, Scout’s sexist approach to interacting with women is played for sympathy (”he’s actually a romantic underdog because the lady he likes accurately clocked him as an idiot!”) and inadvertently validated (”once she gave him a chance, she found out he’s actually a pretty okay guy!”).
In the process, Miss Pauling loses far too much of her usual competence, being visibly freaked out over having to perform a job she’s been shown to handle with grace in the past, and being taken aback by what should by all rights be routine weirdness in this world, all so she can have an eye-roll-worthy forced positive reaction to the entire experience at the end of the short, in a weak attempt to justify why she comes to like Scout more despite all the trouble he’s caused for her and wants to spend more time with him in the future.
The romance subplot is only made possible because the characters are heavily edited compared to their past portrayals, is only able to develop in the direction it does by aligning itself with the values of a character who existed to be a laughable, obviously-mistaken caricature, and is only able to distill a happy ending to the whole mess by stripping the other character of personal standards and agency.
Scout and Pauling are frankly two halves of a whole shitshow in Expiration Date, because the writers either didn’t notice or didn’t care about what older works were gunning for - all they saw was that Boy Liked Girl, Girl Did Not Like Boy, and that just wouldn’t stand! After all, everyone likes romance, right?
Scout, as he is portrayed in the game and in the early supplementary material, is one of my absolute favorites of the mercs. I find him incredibly funny, and the way his hyperactive, fun-loving, jokey traits overlap with his intense bloodlust (literally - he’s the class with the most weapons available that cause bleed damage!) and barely-suppressed rage makes him fun and fascinating. The little man has so much unchecked ADHD and cultural trauma he just has to go and kill people about it, which is just so intensely relatable in the “forbidden mood” way TF2 handles so well.
Unfortunately, I get the impression he has in later years fallen victim to the curse of being a skinny young white guy character, making him a target for writers who think every series needs a relatable everyman protagonist for either themselves or the audience to project onto (and who think skinny young white guys are the most relatable people around, for reasons you can probably imagine I’m not personally very fond of).
TF2 absolutely does not need a character like that, and butchering Scout’s established personality in the name of “relatable” and “wholesome” is first of all Some Bullshit, and second of all a lost cause. The character simply has too much baggage as an over-the-top caricature to be comfortably rewired into an author- or audience-surrogate. He’s always going to come out looking like an asshole - whether this aspect of his character turns out likeable or unlikeable is entirely controlled by whether the story itself acknowledges it.
I did find Scout and Spy's dynamic to be quite well done, though, especially if you ignore the "Spy is Scout's father" reveal from the later comics.
The idea that Spy didn't have to go and do all that, but has grown a soft spot for Scout purely because his girlfriend clearly loves her incredibly annoying boy and her happiness is his happiness, is perfectly in-character. Scout has also long been established to desperately crave approval from his teammates, and on paper, the idea of putting him in a situation where he had to let go of some of his macho man dignity, imitate Spy more closely and ultimately win a tiny bit of that approval he's been looking for is interesting and plays well with the game's existing themes.
It's just a shame Scout's motivations ended up being conjured out of thin air, in direct conflict with past characterization, for the purpose of enabling a schmaltzy, tonally dissonant romantic subplot.
tl;dr, I'm conflicted on the subject of Expiration Date. It's funny, it's cute when it's not trying too hard, and seeing the mercs dick around off the clock getting into stupid shenanigans together is something I've always wanted to see in a longer animated format. It’s largely a good time and a fun watch, despite its questionable gender politics and trope-y execution.
However, like the newer comics, it suffers immensely from writers who are simply unable to identify the themes, characterization and comedy style of older material, and thus, in my opinion, falls way, way short of its potential.
>4b) I'd be very curious to hear your thoughts on Emesis Blue, should you end up watching it.
I'll be sure to share my opinions if I ever get around to watching it!! I'm super curious about it. As I mentioned in another post, what little I've heard of it seems much more on-point thematically, and even with the characters being so far removed from their official characterization, I really get the impression this is a deliberate, informed choice, in stark contrast to the newer official supplementary material. I’ll be sure to drop some words on it if I ever get around to watching the full thing!
Anyway, that about wraps up my thoughts! If you’ve read this far, thank you for sticking with it, and please do consider reblogging - I’ve spent an insane amount of time writing and re-writing and fact-checking this, and I would love for it to reach just half of all the people who were curious about my initial posts on the subject. :’)
Follow-up questions are very welcome, though to be clear: I’m not really interested in “debating” the subjects I’ve talked about here. I know I posit a lot of hard opinions in this post and not everyone is going to agree with me and that’s fine - if you feel differently, I invite you to simply ignore me and write your own take on your own blog. No hard feelings, I just don’t enjoy those kinds of discussions. (Corrections on any factual mistakes I’ve made are of course encouraged).
#team fortress 2#tf2#tf2 analysis#tf2 meta#tf2 comics#soldier tf2#spy tf2#analyzing comedy#analyzing satire#deerchatter
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Okay, time for a kinda serious post.
As some of you might know, I write Dramione. No great author here, just a girl who enjoys writing and likes the ship.
In the last week I’ve received a series of comments on two different FanFictions that have left me quite speechless.
There are others but I think that’s enough.
I’m not offended.
I just don’t understand.
I thought the whole point in writing FanFictions was that we could take the characters we love and make them do something which is obviously not canon or none of us would be here.
Did I miss the meeting where we decided this was not okay any longer and we have to stay canon compliant?
Do I have to poll some committee before posting a fanfiction?
Do I have to do a research on the grades of Draco Malfoy?
If that’s the case I’ll keep on writing for myself and my closest friends because I most certainly will not anyone tell me what to do.
We are allowed to have opinions. We are allowed not to like something. A trope, a story, a ship.
But we are also obliged to be respectful, that’s the only rule I care about.
Constructive comments are wonderful. Asking someone you’ve never met in your entire life if she is drunk is not.
If you don’t like a story, there’s no need to be mean. Just stop reading, no one is forcing you.
I love this fandom, I really do. I was a silent reader before deciding to post my first story and I loved that. I met wonderful people and made amazing friends. But god, lately it’s become toxic.
Hate posts on Facebook.
Bashing stories and authors on every platform. For stories we can all read for free.
Are we all right? Like seriously.
We are talking about Dramione. Dramione.
Can we all just chill out and leave people write whatever they want to? Canon. Fanon. Nonsense. Smut. Werewolf Draco. A/B/O. Whatever.
Write.
Read.
Have fun.
Life is already difficult enough without having to deal with mean comments or posts.
That said, peace and love.
I’m going back to write stoned Draco and Hermione talking in the RoR.
Love ya
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not you ranting 💀 it’s misogynistic to make Harry regulus child when Lily is the mom not regulus GODDAMN.
bro..,.. they’re not real. go touch some grass
listen ive seen people being misogynistic towards lily in order to favor jegulus. it does happen and i wont deny it, however i will simply just stay away from it and not interact. im way more interested in evolving lilys character and give her her own narrative instead of just using her to hate a mlm ship and claim to be feminist about it. like it’s fandom. make your own goddamn peace and create a space that you fucking enjoy. yall are not trying to defend lily when yall do this you’re just trying to be anti jegulus and using her to do it
no one is saying that regulus is ’the mom’ but like. people can do whatever the fuck they want. if people dont want to write lily but they want to write jegulus being harrys parents then by fucking god let them. who CARES. i wont interact with it and it doesnt interest me but oh my fucking god it’s fandom. people are out here writing mpreg and a/b/o and tentacle porn and incest and whatever the fuck else. this is simply not a problem. none of it is. its fandom and its free and its for fun
(i never see any of you complaining about tonks glaring absence in wolfstar teddy fics……..)
just don’t interact if it bothers you. i have things i wont interact with and topics i find problematic, so i stay the fuck away from it. no one is profiting and no one has to fucking read it. its not being advertised and its not being goddamn taught in schools
i will always defend lily and my priority is simply evolving her characters and giving her a narrative that just simply isn’t being a mom or a wife. like bro im in the middle of writing a lily character study canon divergence fic where she simply wasnt home when voldemort came and she doesnt save harry with the power of ’motherly love’. it will be morally grey and highly disturbing and a lot of people wont want to read it. however i want to write it to rebel against her doomed narrative in canon as a dead wife and mother. she wont necessarily be likeable or someone to root for but thats what i want to explore in my goddamn fanfiction
yall are acting as if some people writing regulus being harrys parent actually has a broad negative impact on the political climate or some shit as if its not just a silly little thing people do online bc it makes them happy. GO OUTSIDE…. TURN OFF YOUR PHONE…..????
and as i said. i simply wont interact with lily bashing but that’s just me. that’s my preference. i will consider interacting with this trope if lily just simply isnt involved. HOWEVER. THATS JUST ME. PEOPLE DO WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANT.
it’s fandom. it’s not real. no one is profiting. there are no editors involved except for lovely people who will sometimes beta. it’s not professionally done. it’s free. it’s an outlet to be silly and fun and explore dynamics. these are fictional characters that do not exist
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🌪️?
(ask game)
🌪️Sum up a WIP with a few fic tropes/Ao3 tags.
Ooo I'll sum up all of my upcoming wips!! :D
✧ Heartache Hospital (yandere!Scaramouche) - modern au, lots of angst, slight comfort, scara gradually learns to accept his own humanity, cherish the life he was given, and the friendship that you offer during the time he serves his "prison sentence" (hospital stay).
✧ The Most Dangerous Game (yandere!Jade) - smut/porn with plot, does it truly count as fwb if you're only fucking him because he has his brother's face? (twin with benefits???), unrequited love, the most troublesome love rivalry you will ever see because floyd isn't even competing, but his mere existence is a threat to jade. T_T
✧ LLH order (yandere!Alhaitham) - it's difficult to sum this one up because it's really just: alhaitham helps you get back on your feet after your poor life choices leave you in a troubling position, and you begrudgingly accept his help even though he's annoying when he cares about you in subtle ways; you say you hate him, but do you really? :), lots of sexual tension, eventual non-con.
✧ Moonbroch (yandere!Octavinelle) - amnesia, captivity, escape attempt(s), lol in this context stands for Lots of Lies, right person but wrong time.
✧ Azul thought 2 sequel (yandere!Azul) - pregnancy, stalking, obsession, unlikely friendship (between ruggie and reader), some hurt/comfort (between leona and reader), leona is essentially: royal duties? i sleep. my wife is baby-trapped and now being stalked by a creepy, obsessive octopus? REAL SHIT?, leona is the best husband to have and also ruggie is the best friend you need amidst so much chaos.
✧ Eternally Ever After (yandere!Rook) - soulmate au, time loop, violence, death, fanfiction within fanfiction (which likely makes no sense now, but when you read the story you'll see what I mean hehe >:D), rook accumulates quite the kill count in this fic.
✧ The Crocodile's Dilemma (yandere!Riddle) - slight angst, family tensions (mama rosehearts is her own trigger warning; she's the worst. >_<), captivity, post-canon fic, riddle rosehearts: law-abiding doctor by day and novice criminal by night.
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Schoolgirls dictatorship and Naruto fandom
After a year hanging around in the tumblr Naruto fandom, I've learned with certitude that men (and women) are forbidden to have friendship and express brotherhood. But also, I've just noticed recently that poor general culture is a must. When you read a story you shouldn't be curious to google what you don't understand and expand your view. but in contrary you should tear down the plot to your limited schoolgirl comprehension of the world. And gaslight everything/everyone that/who doesn't fit to your desires. And if it's not enough, have a tantrum, call people names !
What do I mean by schoolgirl? You don't need to be at school, neither being a teenage not even being a girl. You can be a 40 years old mother of 6 with a deep schoolgirl mindset. Schoolgirl is a concept, a way of life, a philosophy of being. It's rooted from the idea that everything is about you somehow. What you feel is what the world shall feel, what you see is what the world shall see, and in the Naruto fandom what you want is what Kishimoto wanted too but couldn't say it loud enough so he needs YOU to make it more obvious to the ignorant mass of readers. Here is an exhaustive list of what a schoolgirl will demand and impose as canon no matter if it destroys the whole story in the process :
intense emotional romance (love or hate, with me or against me tropes)
intense hardcore sex (hormonal urges)
intense anxieties. Toxic love affairs, taking pleasure in the victimhood's position with a total refusal to acknowledge own mistakes is a peak.
abolition of friendship. It's a shonen but you know those sad and pathetic males in denial of their true feeling, stubbornly platonic who refuse to engage in graphic intercourses for the well-being of schoolgirls' libido.
meowmeow-fication of the world, the cuter the better. Why should we take into account the mysterious attraction in the otherness, the beauty, the paradox and awe in human's nature, human's temperaments, the subtle differences between men and women while it's so much more easy for your lazy brain when everyone is a babygirl.
Decontextualisation. War? shinobi world? history? geography? politics? nuances? foreign cultural norms? No this is too deep for a schoolgirl. You need storyline like junk food, it needs to be fat, heavily sweet and easy to digest. How dare you add subliminal references to others artists from past centuries, arts, mythologies? You mean the schoolgirl needs to actually open a non fanfictional book? Shut up !
I was reading lately a comment from someone stressing that there is "obvious" romance spotted when Madara asks Hashirama to kill him and in reverse when Hashirama chose to kill himself. I thought to myself : Ok maybe not everyone knows what is the bushido (google it!) ...but surely this fandom has seen before a war movie or knighthood movie or even spend time talking with actual soldiers? They seems to genuinely ignore what is a code of honour.
Secondly we're talking about a japanese manga and the Warring state era is heavily inspired by the real Japanese warring state era (Sengoku Jidai). If you have watched the documentary Age of samurai on Netflix, they… decide to perform su*cide all the goddamn time! 😭
Often for reasons related to honour, avoidance of disgrace for the group after a general loose a battle. But also a su*cide can be a form of protestation, a way to tell an important message.
Emile Durheim (google him!), a sociologist who wrote a study about su*cide classifies them in 4 differents types : egoistic, anomic, fatalistic and altruistic su*cide. The well-known japanese seppuku performed by samurai is part of the altruistic form. When Hashirama is ready to die, It has nothing to do with emotional turmoil for the love of his life or whatever metaphysical anxiety. He wants to prove how strongly resolved he is to build his village and the new era of peace he dreamed of and for that he's resolute to give up his own life for the benefit of the group. It's true heroism and it's selfless (see, I'm not a fan of Hashirama but I can detach myself from my subjective feelings sometimes)
And just before that, Madara accepting death from Hashirama's hand (a former childhood friend) is also a proof how highly he esteems Hashirama as a victorious winner even if he is his arch-enemy. In his own way Madara shows his selflessness. In this precise moment, even in his personal pain and anger against the Senju, he's still able to recognise Hashirama's dignity and protect him from going through the same despair of losing a brother.
But yeah that's too much effort… Schoolgirl fever is way more comfortable, right?
#Schoolgirl cognitive studies phD#believe it!#Naruto fandom#Madara#Madara Uchiha#Hashirama#Hashirama Senju#Hashimada#Naruto#Naruto Shippuden
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Hi, for the choose violence ask game 🔥🔥🔥, I'd like to hear your opinions on 10, 13, 16 and 22 (if some don't inspire you, you can skip them ^^)
Btw, I discovered your blog around a week ago and let me tell you, I think I binged all of your one-shots and commented on practically all of them, + I passed way too much time on your Tumblr blog/AO3 account, something I didn't do in YEARS, so thx for making me go back to my fanfiction obsessed phase xD
thank you very much, anon - this is absolutely lovely!
[choose violence ask game here]
10. what is the worst part of fanon?
‘the class system is good, actually.’
as someone who is also annoying, vaguely sinister, and spends a remarkable amount of time with the dead (because i’m a doctor, rather than a serial killer, i promise), i am one of lord voldemort’s ride-or-die girlies. what i am not a ride-or-die girly for is the tiresome pro-aristocracy fanon which infects so many death-eater-centric fics.
the sacred twenty eight is not real (it’s a pisstake of things like debrett’s), lucius malfoy doesn’t have a seat on the wizengamot, when sirius says his parents thought being a black made them ‘practically royal’ it is with utter disdain and not a statement of fact, aristocrats are not better or more special than people who are not aristocrats, just as purebloods are not better or more special than people who are half-blood or muggleborn.
class is the central theme of the harry potter series, absolutely - just as it is the central theme of pretty much everything in britain - but that doesn’t mean that glorifying it is good or enjoyable or a way of sticking it to jkr. if you meet real-life aristocrats, they’re almost exclusively all cringe. don’t give them a veneer of being sexy and fun that they don’t deserve.
13. who gets the worst blorbofication?
regulus black.
someone with a scrapbook about terrorist activities is not a sweet little baby.
16. what is a trope, characterisation, headcanon etc. that you can’t understand why people like?
ron being written as dumb or abusive.
ron is incredible and i love him. he’s emotionally mature, kind, obviously a wife-guy, clever, a big-picture thinker etc., and i hate when he gets turned into a violent boor just for being a dick about viktor krum (he was acting up because he’s bi and he fancied krum, for one; hermione is just as bad about how ron acts around fleur and lavender, for two).
i especially hate it when he gets turned into a violent boor to enable hermione to run off with either severus snape or draco malfoy. two men whom i always associate with the phrase ‘not prone to jealousy’...
22: what is your favourite part of canon, which everyone else ignores?
that they’re wearing pointy hats on nearly all occasions.
#choose violence ask game#aristocracy is cringe#regulus black#is also cringe#ron weasley#is the goat#asks answered
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I’ve noticed a late tendency in fandom spaces to not accept variations from canonical informations, or acknowledging only 1 headcanon and disregard everything else. It’s a bit strange to me considering how much of fandom is truly just about changing canon and reading between the lines, but it makes sense considering it goes hand in hand with another thing that is really bothering me, which is the “it’s not that deep” trend.
It seems to me like we went so far into the conviction that nothing is deep that now there’s a general incapacity to comprehend subtext. Like if something isn’t literally openly acknowledged by a piece of media then it doesn’t exists, and wondering if it does is dumb and not valid.
I’ve seen a shitload of people say that a ship isn’t valid because they’re not canon, or that a specific interpretation of a character or a topic is way too far off just because it hasn’t been explicitly confirmed by the author.
Which is why the bbc Merlin fandom is so refreshing and it’s so great to interact with it. The what this fandom overanalyzes every single piece of interaction between Merlin and Arthur is truly endearing. There’s so many tropes and headcanons, and the thing is that it’s not just about the main ship. There’s plenty of fanon content for every character on the show. I’ve seen pages long character analysis on Elyan or Morgause, or even Ygraine (that is dead the whole time, mind you).
Also yeah Merthur is the generally accepted ship but there’s so much more and amost all of them are fanon and based on very little content that truly comes from the show. Think Leon/Gwen or Mordred/Daegal, where do they even come from??? And there’s genuinely great content for all of them, some actual masterpieces. I’m pretty sure i read a great Morgana/human!Aithusa fanfic.
And even genuinely bad characters are sometimes redeemed by fanon. I hate Uther and Morgause but I’ve read some amazing fanfiction of them being redeemed or even just straight up good. They managed to make me like Agravain and that’s something.
All of this just to say that fandom really isn’t the place to be judging other people’s headcanons, even if they seem weird or very far off from the original piece of media. Everyone is entitled to their own interpretation, that’s the whole point. Art isn’t a dead thing immortalized by its own creator, but the experience of those who engage with it.
#another great example is the dinluke fandom#generated entirely by a single interaction between two characters that never exchanged more than two words to each other#it really gives freedom to interpretation and invention#dinluke#star wars#bbc merlin#merthur#fandom ships#fandom is a free land#death of the author
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Knock Knock ✨💖
°´❤•.¸♥ 𝓒𝓱𝓪𝓻𝓪𝓬𝓽𝓮𝓻 𝓥𝓸𝓲𝓬𝓮 𝓐𝓭𝓿𝓲𝓬𝓮 ♥¸.•❤
🐻 fav vs. least fav trope?
🐶 your fav character to read / write about, or create for?
🐕 a sentence you read/wrote that stuck with you?
🥔fav fanfic oat?
🐿️fav fanart oat?
🐐a character you’d like to write more for, read about, or create more for?
🐌 a trope you’re embarrassed to like? (guilty pleasure)
📦 choose one genre of fanfiction, the rest have to go!
🍄🟫do you prefer canon or au?
🐂a trope you refuse to write abt / read abt / create for?
🥧 do you prefer one shots or multi-chaptered fics?
💼 summarize the last fic you read / wrote in one sentence.
🤎describe your perfect conditions for writing/ drawing, ect.
👜 Have you ever deleted one of your published fics / art?
🐡who / what inspired you to read / write / create?
📔how do you deal with art block / writers block?
👞do you prefer collabs or working independently?
🥠one thing you’d like to improve on in your writing / art?
🥮fav vs. least fav of your works?
NOT THE UNO REVERSE.
Alright so bet:
🐻 🅵𝐚𝐯 𝐯𝐬. 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐯 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞?
Favorite trope: Angst with Romance or Domestic
Least Fav trope: Plotless smut? I rarely do it.
🐶 🆈𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐟𝐚𝐯 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 / 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫?
Nanami Kento
🐕 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝/𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐲𝐨𝐮??
"He hated that he finally let his love leak into something that was not meant to be. "
🥔𝐅𝐚𝐯 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐨𝐚𝐭?
Hmm. Depends on the fandom I guess. Like current reads would be fics by @umber-cinders & @pilesofpillows And few JJK ones.
🐿️𝐅𝐚𝐯 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐚𝐭?
Monsterfucking fanart and Nanago ones.
🐐𝐀 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭���� 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫, 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭, 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫?
Gojo Satoru x Nanami Kento
OC x Nanami Kento
OC x Astarion
OC x Getou Suguru
OC x Sukuna
Attuma x Okoye again. (Eventually.)
🐌 𝐀 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞? (𝐠𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐭𝐲 𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐞)
Fluff. Domestic Fluff. I always end up doing a palette cleanser of angst with it. Or writing some dark scenes lmao.
📦 𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐚𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐨!
Angst with Romance or Dead Dove LOL. I don't make the rules.
🍄🟫𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐚𝐮?
AU. Cause when you got characters like Gojo who is "dead" right now cause their creator don't really like them. You can always bring them back in AUs. lmaoooo. Or just ignore canon.
🐂𝐀 𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐭 / 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐛𝐭 / 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫?
I am not sure.
🥧 𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐬?
I like both! But I noticed stories that have me hooked end up being one shots and that bums me out sometimes lmao.
💼 𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐜 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 / 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞.
Inya hindbrain finally gets her lick back and she gets filled like the omega cream pie she was mean't to be.
🤎𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠/ 𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐜𝐭.
At night time with youtube normally playing some none commentary gameplay or a creepshow podcast Meatcanyon & Wendigoon.
👜 𝐇𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐬 / 𝐚𝐫𝐭?
Fanfic! Yes!
🐡𝐰𝐡𝐨 / 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝 / 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞 / 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞?
Anime shows like Dragon Ball Z. Sailor Moon and Inuyasha. I finding my notebooks with hand written fic is so funny but realizing how long I've been trying to write before starting roleplay and THEN fic writing. Its interesting.
📔𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤 / 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤?
I stare into space or just not write. And sometimes that block can last for months.
👞𝐃𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲?
Considering the reason It Takes Two purely exists because @umber-cinders added fuel to it. And alot of my BP stories are the same result. I would be up for a collab. But I work independently rn.
🥠𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮’𝐝 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 / 𝐚𝐫𝐭?
Write like another author/artist lmao. Just maybe I won't squint or side eye my stuff sometimes. But all joking aside, it would be nice to know how to draw some scenes that I have stuck in my head.
🥮𝐅𝐚𝐯 𝐯𝐬. 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐚𝐯 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬?
Favorite im stuck between two of them?? I'd say Alpha! Gojo x Omega! Nanami in It Takes Two. Because of the endless possibilities. Or Ndithande with Attuma x Okoye which is a Cowboy AU.
Least Favorite:
I don't have one believe it or not. Even if I am not working on a certain fandom atm. That doesn't mean I am done or dislike them btw.
Lmaoooo I answered them all @umber-cinders thanks for the tag and ask! <3 <3
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Hello & Welcome to Steddie Fanfiction for Billy Lovers
I (@thediktatortot) made this account so I can share Steddie fanfiction for multishippers like myself who do not care for the villainization or lack of empathy that can be pretty common in Steddie fanfiction, but still like/love the Steddie ship.
Note: If you would like to recommend a fic, please send it through the ask box! I will screen all submissions however to avoid any ill intent that may occur.
What will be shared:
Fics that are neutral to Billy and do not mention him in any way shape or form, even in regards to Max's life.
Fics that are friendly to Billy by being sympathetic to his canon abuse & either mention him or he plays a roll in the fic.
Fics that are positively critical and sympathetic to his canon abuse, and do not villainize him or misconstrue his canon actions as a result of his canon abuse.
Fics that are SFW, NSFW & Dead Dove.
What will not be shared:
Fics that are negatively critical of Billy's canon actions in a way that negates his canon abuse & show no sympathy for his status as a survivor of abuse.
Fics that are overtly negative or hateful of Billy.
Fics that put Billy in a position of being an abuser without context to his actions in reference to his own canon abuse.
Fics that put Billy in a position of being a rapist or a child predator.
Fics that specifically mention Eddie or Steve replacing Billy as Max's brother or family. (Note: If the fic has either Eddie or Steve developing their own relationship with Max & do not make it seem like they are replacing Billy, then those are fine.)
Fics that paint Karen as a non-aggressor in reference to her flirting with Billy who was in S2 a 17 year old and in S3 an 18 year old.
Note: All fics shared here are because they fit the criteria above. I personally may not like or enjoy all the tropes, kinks or topics that are in each and every fanfic, but I will not gatekeep or withhold from sharing because of my own personal gripes. Something I might not like might still be enjoyed by others and I do not feel the need to withhold because of that.
Navigation
Billy Neutral Fics
Billy Friendly Fics
Billy Critical Positive Fics
Self Recommendations
Oneshot | 2-5 Chapters | 6-10 Chapters | 11-15 Chapters | 16-20 Chapters | 21-25 Chapters | 26-30 Chapters | 31-35 Chapters | 36-40 Chapters | 41-45 Chapters | 46-50 Chapters | 51-55 Chapters |
Under 5k | 5k+ | 10k+ | 15k+ | 20k+ | 25k+ | 30k+ | 40k+ | 50k+ | 60k+ | 70k+ | 80k+ | 90k+ | 100k+ | 150k+ | 200k+ | 300k+ | 400k+ |
Not Rated | General Audiences | Teen & Up Audiences | Mature | Explicit
!!!!: If you find a fic has changed from any of it’s current labels, please feel free to let me know so I can change it accordingly or remove it. I am trying not to post unfinished fics but I am sure there will be a few and I would hate for something to slip by. This also applies to something I might have missed, please let me know so I can take care of it accordingly.
Tag Meaning
Billy Friendly (Fics with Billy either mentioned or in character where writer has taken the time to mention or verbalize empathy for Billy's character.)
Billy Neutral (Fics that do not mention Billy in any way what so ever by name or in regards to Max's life or current life.)
Billy Critical Positive (Fics that are critical of Billy's character, but not in a way that belittles or obfuscates the character for their actions or experiences in canon, or only mentions canon moments in a non-negative way.)
Billy Critical Negative (Fics that are critical of Billy's character with ill intentions or oversight of a characters lived experiences.)
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Love the fanfic asks, so 🧩, 🪲, 🏜️, ❄️, 🔪, 🍬, 🍄, 🥤, 🛼 and 🕯️
🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?
If its a pairing / trope I don't like or if the fic is just a huge wall o' text it puts me off.
🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here.
(this won't see the light of day cos it's so self indulgent lmao but here)
"Come here."
Volodymyr turns to Maksym, fiddling with the cuffs of his shirt.
"Your tie is crooked," his voice is soft, steady; reaching out without being given permission - adjusting the patterned silk tie gently.
"Feels... strange.." Vova's voice is rough, for once not from tiredness - it's nerves.
🏜️ ⇢ what’s your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?
I am FERAL for any sort of feedback, genuinely. Even just a comment with emojis and I'll be happy! I adore comments where people pick out particular lines or themes though. I just.. love hearing what people liked tbh, how it made them feel, what it made them think of. (If you've read my stuff anon - I'd adore it if you told me what you enjoyed!)
❄️ ⇢ what’s your dream theme/plot for a fic, and who would write it best?
Oooo. Now that's a question. Dream plot at the moment is just something lovely and soft and gentle with Vova & Olena in the Carpathains. Preferably because that's what's happening IRL.
🔪 ⇢ what’s the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?
I've amassed a Pinterest board full of self-defence / Thai boxing diagrams lately.
🍬 ⇢ post an unpopular opinion about a popular fandom character
Can't think of one off the top of my head atm!
🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings
I have a silly little head canon that probably at some point, Maks has carried Vova to bed when he's been terribly stubborn and / or fallen asleep at his desk.
🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love
I LOVE @is-this-working Compromised - currently in progress; an amazing 100k words of Maks/Vova goodness. Tackles lots of difficult things with grace, fantastic characterisation of everyone, all round amazing.
🛼 ⇢ describe your latest wip with five emojis
I've done my two main WIPs at the moment and I've nothing else really on the go as I've been feeling really uninspired lately; but have a couple of emojis for the next bit of Lost in the Light!
🟡🤟🏼👕☺️🌻
🕯️ ⇢ on a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you enjoy editing? why is that?
Probably a 4? I don't like editing because it means I have to reread my work in a focused enough way that I'll probably end up hating it. There's been a lot of things that I've binned off because editing has made me second guess everything
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this is purely out of curiosity and i don't want to send hate your way, but do you ship mob and reigen? and if so, why?
I do, yeah. An ex-friend of mine asked me the exact same question (just more... harshly I think and with what I assumed was prejudice) before they decided to part our ways and I could never properly answer them because I was so stressed by the situation, it was hard to gather my thoughts. So I'll do my best to explain here, hopefully to make myself understood better.
Sorry if this gets lenghty >_< I'll just put a readmore right here.
I think the biggest reason for why I like them is their canon relationship that has been explored in the series already quite thoroughly - that they have changed eachother, helped eachother grow and one wouldn't be the person they are without the other. I think most of us understand the depth of it. Reigen is Mob's teacher and friend, someone like an older brother. There surely is a strong bond between them and they've seen each other at their best and worst and still acknowledged and accepted eachother's flaws. They trust eachother, they would give their life for eachother even (at least Reigen would, he almost did in the finale after all). And I do think that they love eachother but in a way that isn't actually romantic in canon. I'm perfectly capable of realizing that and I value it a lot both in the series and in fanworks (one of my fav works of fanfiction is about exactly that).
It was my curiosity that made me search up a ship fic of them, I was just confused why people ship them in the first place and whether it can be good and I found myself enjoying it a lot (to my surprise). It was set into the future, and dealt with some serious topics like loss and acceptance, it was kind of bittersweet. Then I felt that maybe it was just slightly ooc because all of the serirei fics I was busy reading depicted Reigen slightly different. Nontheless, I had the other ship on my mind then so I never really dived into Mob/Reigen, but it changed my perspective on them a lot.
And at some point into all this I realized, why not? Why can't I haz 2 cookies? (god im sorry that was terrible sfjgsdkj). What I mean is that the buildup canon offers can be taken further - more of their relationship can be explored in terms of new tropes, sometimes romantic too.
On a personal note I'll just add that I'm rather picky about them and tend to stick to fluff, hurt/comfort and slow slow burns. And I like them most post-canon, a few years into the future. It turns out that it all depends on how they're portrayed for me to like them anyways. I talked on here recently about a work that really had it all and portrayed their relationship in a very satisfying and mature way, with all the complicated feelings, it felt very realistic, especially on Reigen's side. So if anyone wants, here's a rec from me again -> in my dreams (I seem to be more honest) on ao3, just because I think it has all that I like about the ship.
I think that this is the whole point of fanworks - to kind of look further and have fun with it, to see "what if?". Even if it's something sort of.. taboo I guess? Because you get to take it apart in a fictional dimension (if that makes sense). And I completely understand if this is something that can ick some people out or that someone doesn't want to ruin their perception of the characters' relationship. That's totally fine by me and I'm not going to force anyone into liking the ship of course. And there are definitely tropes and tags I really don't want to look into - not everything is for me either.
And I think this goes without saying but I'll add it here anyways: what I like to see in fiction doesn't mean I would like or encourage anyone to do the same thing in real life! It's just interesting to explore from a safe distance where no one can get hurt.
#I didn't mean to make it this long sorry T_T#answered#you dont need to read the fic of course jsdfhskjf i just put it here for anyone interested#also big thanks for asking respectfully#I really appreciate it!
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9, 10, 16, & 17 👁👁👁 for choose violence asks??
#9 worst part of canon
Believe it or not I DO HAVE CRITICISMS OF CANON!! And one of my biggest is how they handle Aang's anger and grief in Books 1 and 3. In Book 1, Aang finds out that he's the sole survivor of a genocide that happened a century ago. He's understandably miserable. But we don't really see that for the rest of the book??? I mean we see it a bit in The Storm, The Northern Air Temple, and The Siege of the North Pt 1 (I think), but not anywhere else. And in Book 3, Aang is feeling miserable because he's failed yet again, the Earth Kingdom has fallen when he was trying to free the entire world. But we don't see him feel that past the first episode??? Come ON We see Aang's grief and misery in Book 2 when he loses Appa, you can give us some of that lingering misery and grief and self-doubt and blame.
#10 worst part of fanon
The character assassination that comes with the UWU-ification and trope-ification in fanfiction. Usually, characters are simplified to their surface-level personalities and are seen as nothing other than that; an example of that would be what they did to Kyoshi and Zuko (gods I hate it). It also usually happens when characters are sorted into their "proper ships" as well, reducing them to a trope in a pairing, and I really dislike that. I've seen this happen with everything, even rarepairs, and it's very disheartening to see.
#16 you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)
Making characters cops in modern AUs or just in general. I just. I don't see it. Toph as a cop? No- her entire thing is going against the rules. Hakoda, of all people, as a cop??? Absolutely NOT that man was a guerilla soldier for YEARS in a war he'd be like the opposite of a cop.
#17 there should be more of this type of fic/art
Bakoda fics that are Bakoda centric and NOT WEIRDLY PREDATORY with some weird Zuko insert. I've seen so many and it's so strange and I Dislike it. Please just give me my old cute guys in love without me needing to go through and block 352079 tags thank you
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