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aro-and-tired · 3 years

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Aromantic Experiences in Fandom: Survey Results

PART 1 - PART 2 - ANALYSIS: TIME IN FANDOM - ANALYSIS: AROALLOS VS AROACES

As this is the second part of the discussion regarding results of this survey, I suggest checking out Part 1 before this.

This post will discuss how aromantic content creators in fandom feel when it comes to creating aro-specific content, and how aromantic fans feel when it comes to shipping and their preferences for it. There will also be a space for additional comments.

Content Creators Questions

The first question here was a check asking respondents whether or not they ever created fancontent, such as fanfiction, fanart, etc. 76.5% (701) of the respondents stated that they have created fancontent, while 23.5% (215) stated they haven’t. Non-creators skipped the rest of this section.

Question 1: Which kind of content do you create in fandom?

Starting with the options I had given, from most to least picked we have:

Fanfiction - 71.3%

Fanart - 58.8%

Memes - 44.4%

Meta - 22.3%

Playlists - 16.3%

Fanvids - 7.3%

Merch - 1.9%

Furthermore, many people mentioned other kinds of content they create. This includes headcanons, edits, moodboards, roleplay, cosplay, podfic. translations, fan music and ask blogs.

Question 2: Have you ever made content focusing on aromantic headcanons, or other kinds of aromantic content?

Yes, in addition to other kinds of content - 57.2%

No - 41.5%

Yes, I only make aro content - 1.3%

Question 3: If you have created aro content, would you say it got more or less attention than your non aro content?

52.6% of respondents declined to answer or stated that it wasn’t applicable. Excluding these respondents, the results were

It got less attention - 68.1%

It got the same amount of attention - 29.5%

It got more attention - 2.4%

Question 4: Have you ever felt discouraged by your fandom when it comes to making aro content?

Yes, because I didn’t think it would get attention - 42.6%

Yes, because I was afraid to get hate for it - 35.7%

No - 39.2%

Question 5: Have you ever received hate because of the aro content you made?

40.7% of respondents answered saying they have never created aro content. Excluding these respondents, the results were

No - 81.5%

Yes - 18.5%

Shipping Questions

The first question was a check that asked whether or not the respondents were at all into shipping. 88% (806) said they enjoy shipping, while 11.2% (103) said that they are not. 0.8% (7) said that they are not into shipping, and not involved in fandom. Respondents who picked the last option skipped the following section, and were taken to the end of the survey.

Shippers

Question 1: How important is shipping to you when it comes to being in fandom?

Shipping is my primary form of engaging with fandom - 7.1%

Shipping is fairly important to me, but I’m also into other sides of the fandom - 22.5%

Shipping is about as important to me as other sides of the fandom - 38.8%

Shipping is not particularly important to me, I prefer other sides of the fandom - 29.7%

Shipping is the least important part of engaging with fandom - 2%

Question 2: Do you consider non-romantic shipping (shipping characters as queerplatonic partners, friends with benefits, etc.) to be a valid form of shipping, or do you think shipping only refers to romantic situations?

I think shipping can be both romantic and non-romantic - 71.2%

I think some types of non-romantic situations can count as shipping, but not all of them - 21.7%

I think shipping only refers to romantic situations - 7.1%

Question 3: When it comes to your ships, do you prefer content that focuses more on the romantic or sexual aspect of the relationship?

I prefer content focusing on the romantic aspect, I dislike sexual content - 33.1%

I prefer content focusing on the romantic aspect, but I also enjoy sexual content - 23.2%

It makes no difference / I like both equally - 31.9%

I prefer content focusing on the sexual aspect, but I also enjoy romantic content - 9.4%

I prefer content focusing on the sexual aspect, I dislike romantic content - 2.4%

Question 4: Would you say fans place too much importance on romantic shipping, leaving too little space for other kinds of discussions?

Yes - 84.7%

Unsure - 10.7%

No - 4.6%

Question 5: Here I will give you a list of tropes commonly found in shipping fan content. I ask that you pick 5 that you consider your favorites. You can pick less than 5 if there aren't enough tropes that you like, but please try not to pick more.

As a disclaimer, this question is not meant to judge whether or not someone is a “valid” aromantic or anything of the sort. It also does not necessarily indicate that liking the more popular tropes picked is an aro thing, especially since some of these are also popular in fandom spaces at large. It is only meant to highlight general trends in the community.

The five most popular tropes picked were:

Mutual Pining - 46.8%

Domestic Fluff - 46.5%

Slow Burn - 44.8%

Enemies to Lovers - 40.6%

Friends to Lovers - 38.2%

All of those tropes were picked by more than 300 people. Following these, the only trope picked by more than 200 people was Established Relationship.

Tropes picked by more than 100 people were, in order of popularity, Soulmate AU, PWP, Fake Dating, Getting Together, Porn with Feelings, and with the same popularity Friends with Benefits and Telepathic Bonds.

Tropes picked by less than 100 people were, in order of popularity, Unhealthy Relationships, Unrequited Love, Hanahaki Disease, Arranged Marriage, Hate Sex, Friends with Benefits to Lovers, Jealousy/Possessiveness, First Dates, Break Ups, and least popular Love at First Sight.

Question 6: Here I give you the same list of tropes, but this time I ask that you pick the 5 tropes you dislike the most. Again, you can pick less than 5, but please try not to pick more

The same disclaimers as the previous question apply.

The five most disliked tropes were

Jealousy/Possessiveness - 52.9%

Unhealthy Relationships - 48%

Hanahaki Disease - 42.9%

Love at First Sight - 42.4%

Hate Sex - 40.6%

All of these tropes were picked by more than 300 people. Following these, tropes picked by more than 200 people were Soulmate AUs, Break Ups, Arranged Marriage, PWP and Unrequited Love.

Tropes picked by more than 100 people were Fake Dating and Porn with Feelings.

Tropes picked by less than 100 people were Friends with Benefits to Lovers, Telepathic Bonds, Domestic Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friends with Benefits, Enemies to Lovers, Established Relationships, First Dates, Slow Burn, and least disliked with the same amount of votes Getting Together and Mutual Pining.

Once again, there is no judgement on anyone who hates popular tropes or loves hated tropes. The aromantic community is not a monolith, there is great variety between us, and no aromantic people is made up only of their aromanticism. There can be all sorts of reasons why one would like or dislike a trope.

That being said, some considerations can be made from these trends. For example, various aros have said that since romantic attraction is confusing we don’t quite get how can someone fall in love with people they barely know, or why is falling in love with a friend considered strange and not the norm. Many of the popular tropes involve characters who have known each other for a long time (Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, Slow Burn) while things such as Love at First Sight or First Dates are less popular.

We can also look at tropes various aros find arophobic. Hanahaki Disease is often mentioned as making many aros deeply uncomfortable, and we can see that here few people have it as a favorite, and many pick it as one of their most disliked tropes. Another one that is often mentioned in those discussions is Soulmate AU, that people are more ambivalent about - it’s both the sixth most disliked and seventh most liked. Maybe because it has much more variation than Hanahaki Disease, or maybe because people find it less arophobic as a whole. Or maybe simply due to personal tastes.

Non-Shippers

Question 1: Is the reason you don't enjoy shipping connected to the fact that you are aromantic?

Yes - 87.4%

No - 12.6%

Question 2: Would you say fans place too much importance on romantic shipping, leaving too little space for other kinds of discussions?

Yes - 97.1%

Unsure - 1.9% (2 people)

No - 1% (1 people)

Question 3: Do you think you would be more into shipping if people more often shipped characters in a non-romantic way, such as writing about queerplatonic relationships?

Yes - 82.5%

No - 17.5%

Additional Comments

People were allowed to leave additional comments here about anything that wasn’t covered previously.

Many people remarked on the general amatonormativity that is present in fandom spaces, in particular how it often seems as if fandoms are not interested in character dynamics that don’t involve romance. Some people also talked about often aro headcanons overlap with gay/lesbian headcanons because of the similar traits that can count as coding for both identities, and this can cause conflict within fandom. Overall, many people felt that aromantics are often a subcommunity within the larger fandom communities.

Some people also stated that they feel smaller fandoms are more open to aromantic interpretations than bigger ones. Various people mentioned fandoms that they felt were more or less friendly, often saying that small fandoms with few people tend to be more welcoming to aro fans.

There was also some discussion regarding the concept of non-romantic shipping. While many people agree that they enjoy viewing their ships as, for example, queerplatonic relationships, some also feel that using shipping terminology is inadequate for them. Shipping is by default assumed to be romantic by most people, and some don’t like having to using that word or words derived from it for non-romantic situations.

Part 2 Summary

Many aromantic content creators have felt discouraged by fandom when it comes to making aromantic content, either because they are afraid of not gaining any attention for it or because they fear receiving hate for it.The first concern seems quite valid, as a majority of people who did create aro content found that it got less attention compared to their non-aro content. When it comes to receiving hate instead, less than a fifth was a victim of it. This being said, there’s also a good number of aros who don’t overall feel discouraged when it comes to creating said content.

Out of the aros who enjoy shipping, most of them consider it neither the most nor least important part of their fandom experience, usually also enjoying other ways of engaging with fandom. Most prefer romantic content over sexual content, or enjoy both equally, with a minority favoring sexual content over romantic content. The majority also feels that fandom spaces can be too dominated by shipping.

An even higher percentage of aros who do not enjoy shipping find it too prevalent. A good number of them believe that they do not like shipping because they are aromantic, with many also saying that they would be more favorable to shipping if there was more space for non-romantic shipping.

Thank you for having paid attention so far! You can contact me if you have any questions. As I said in Part 1, I am also working on a couple more posts to look for potential differences in the opinions of a few groups, I will publish them in upcoming days.

#aromantic #arospec #fandom #survey results

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asagimeta · 3 years

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The time has come again to remind everyone that good queer representation does not necessarily equal morally good queer characters

I’ve heard that apparently there’s a renaissance of anti-Hannibal going on lately? And that + the rise in popularity of media like Helluva Boss and Killing Eve, and the addition of more openly queer charectors in existing media- from comic book based media to long-running shows like American Horror Story- I feel like this needs to be said again- not necessarily by me but I posted about it way back when Hannibal originally aired it’s finale so I figure, what the hell

Good representation =/= morally good characters

You can have both, absolutely, but you can also have them separate, and you can have all combinations of the reverse too

Ofcourse, to be clear right in the beginning, what counts as “good” representation vs “bad” reputation is going to vary from person to person, everything from life experiences to media exposure to personal opinions will dictate where you land on the sliding scale of “good” or “bad”, someone who’s consumed quite alot of queer-focused media, for example, is going to have a very different opinion than someone who’s only seen one background gay in a TV show that one time, and someone who’s a really huge fan of horror is going to have a much different opinion than someone who’s only a fan of lighter-hearted fair

With that said, in my personal opinion, the measure of good vs bad representation relies less on the character and more on the presentation of said character- less, not entirely

To get what I mean, here’s the best example I can think of:

Castiel from Supernatural is, objectively, a good charactor- if nothing else he’s morally good by most standards, certainly by the time season 15 rolls around, but his canonically queer presentation is just.... horrible, horrible representation and I’ve only met literally one person myself who disagreed with that

Cas is presented as being a really tragic figure right from the start of his coming out- the one thing in the world that would make him truly happy for even a single moment is confessing that he’s in love with Dean, even if Dean rejects him, just saying it is enough, that is..... sad

If it had been framed differently, it actually could have been very good representation, in a “I don’t need you to validate me, I’m being honest about who I am for the first time in my life and that’s enough, I’m enough” way, but it wasn’t, it was framed as pining, as “Even if you don’t love me, my acknowledging openly that I love you is enough to make me happy”, and again that could have worked if framed differently but.... it’s followed up by the infamous “Gay angels go to Super Mega Turbo Hell” thing and like.... no....

Cas is a good character who is queer, he is not a good queer character, because his existence as a queer character lasted less than five minutes and was immediately followed by literally going to what’s worse than hell for expressing his queerness

There is no way I can express the amount of levels of Bad that is, to say nothing of how Dean treats the entire experience for like.... ever... from there on out

But now let’s look at Hannibal, who is objectively a pretty bad character morally- he’s stupendously written but yeah I mean look the dude eats people there’s just no getting around that

But I would argue that he’s excellent queer representation because of how he was presented

Hannibal’s sexuality is never defined, for starters, there’s never a “very special episode” moment where he has some long-winded coming out speech, in fact we don’t quite know how he identifies but because he’s written so artfully we don’t really need to, his exact sexuality doesn’t feel like it needs to be known because, frankly, not much personal information is known about Hannibal anyway, and sexuality feels like one of those arbitrary things that he wouldn’t really care about defining

And that’s the other thing- he’s far from sexless and yet he places no emphasis on sex, he isn’t hypersexualized but he also isn’t being kept as a Ken doll to preserve the message of gay purity (because I don’t know apparently there’s a Thing some people have about how gay people aren’t allowed to be sexual???) he’s just... a person

And that’s really what it comes down to that makes him great, he’s a person first and queer second... or third.... or fourth or fifth.... it never defines who he is, it’s just part of who he is, and regardless of your opinion on Hannibal specifically, I think that is something most queer people strive for in representation

It’s great to have stories that are focused on queerness but it’s equally exhausting to only be able to have characters who’s lives revolve around their sexualities, it’s nice to go into media and go “Oh that character that I already like for these reasons is also queer, that’s so cool!”

Hannibal also skillfully side-steps stereotypes, despite falling into the category of being “polite, thin, and neat”, despite loving fine wine and fine art and fine culture, he never feels like a flamboyant theater kid with a decoration-diploma, wich is how alot of queer characters in this category can feel

His story is about alot of things and his relationship with Will is at the center of much of it, but that relationship didn’t become explicitly queer until the show was almost over- not because it was sudden or poorly written but because it was a slow build up, wich is also refreshing, as alot of times it feels like queer characters are made as explicitly queer as they’re allowed to be as quickly as they’re able to be on screen so that the show can grab those important Representation Brownie Points from episode one and either introduce a Manwhore or a Uhaul Lesbian right away and just kind of leave them in that trope until “someone comes along and changes that” or whatever, I don’t even know what straight writers do half the time, but Hannibal- as a show and a charactor- doesn’t do that, he’s just allowed to exist and tell his story, and THAT is good representation

With the heavy-handed example over with though, I want to tackle the biggest part of this entire “debate” that makes me interested in it:

Queer people are allowed to be bad people

Queer people are allowed to be lazy and unattractive and non-political and angry and jealous and yes, “bad” and evil too

Wile I DEFINITELY prefer to have morally good characters- especially after literally a century of rarely getting more than The Evil Homosexual stereotype and all it’s kin- I also don’t like the direction some people are taking this where queer people are only “allowed” to be 100% morally flawless and good and righteous at all times because it’s just so unrealistic, and because it does the exact same thing that the opposite stereotype does: Puts queer people in a box, makes us a decoration for the straight cast so that the creators get Representation Brownie Points and can’t get yelled at on Twitter, and treats us like we’re some other species (and not in the cool way like werewolves but more like... well, decorations, as I’ve said before)

And if you’re worried about the way straight-cis people perceive us due to seeing evil queer characters, you should be equally worried about how they perceive us seeing nothing but morally flawless ones

I could get into An Entire Thing about the history of Straights trying to turn queer people into what they want us to be and present an inaccurate depiction of us to their brethren for their own benefit but I’ll make it relatively simple

The old way of keeping The Queers away from their Innocent Straight Children was to turn us into villains so that we would be ashamed of who we really are and hide ourselves and pretend to be The Good Christian Folk nextdoor and not get overly political or loud or different

The new way of keeping The Queers away from their Innocent Straight Children is to turn us into sexless Ken & Barbie stereotypes so we can be ashamed of who we really are and pretend to be The Good Christian Folk nextdoor and not get overly political or loud or different

By sterilizing queerness into something they find more “acceptable”, they’re doing the same thing they used to, but now through a lens of “Aren’t you happy you get what you want? You can get married now! You can hold hands in public! Just make sure not to do any of that other crazy stuff you people get up to and you can stay at the Civil Rights Table :)”, we’re still not “allowed” to be sexual human beings, it’s just framed in a way that makes us feel like the people shunning us are on our side wile those same people are still in the corner going “Just don’t kiss in public ok?”

And I could go On about this for some time but let’s get back to the point-

Queer people are three-dimensional people and we should be allowed to be so, we should be allowed to have characterization outside of The Gay Love Interest and The Gay BFF and The Gay Butler and so on, outside of the stereotypes being imposed on us

That’s one of the main reasons I love Yuri On Ice so much, and love Batwoman so much.... and one of the main reasons I love Hannibal and Harley Quinn and Helluva Boss and Killing Eve so much, all of these things star queer characters and queer relationships to different degrees (Batwoman, for example, makes a MUCH larger point and political stance about queerness than, say, Hannibal) and they’re all about something other than queerness too, the charecters are three-dimensional and they’re not built around their sexualities or side peices for straight people

And none of them are PUNISHED for their sexualities either

Going back to Castiel earlier, stereotypes are hardly the worst of our worries when Burry Your Gays, Gayngst Induced Suicide, and Gay Guy Dies First are still alive and well- among others

From Frank N’ Furter in Rocky Horror Picture Show to Tara in Buffy The Vampire Slayer to, oh look, it’s Supernatural again with not just Cas, but also Charlie, and even arguably Dean (but that’s a much longer story for a much different time) and many many more... sometimes just having any gay charecter live through a franchise is enough on it’s own- setting the bar awfully low there but it’s still hard for a shamefully large amount of franchises to step over

In some cases like Tara, it can be pretty decently argued that the death has little- if anything- to do with queerness, but in examples like Cas and Frank, it’s pretty blatantly obvious, especially when the other queer characters in their respective franchises didn’t exactly fair well either....

Matt Baume put it best when he said that until recently, you had to choose if you wanted your only source of representation to be dead or evil, and most people chose evil

Now-a-days that’s clearly not the case as much but there’s still a heavy enough flavor of it there- and villains are just part of gay culture, dating all the way back to prohibition, queer people identified as outlaws because we literally were, so pirates and cowboys and other anti-heros and villains became a staple of the culture that’s still very much alive to this day, thus leading to another point: Identification

Straight people can identify with pretty much whoever they want- from superheros to princesses to any and every kind of villain

Tony Soprano is a horrible, horrible person but is notorious for being beloved among straight white males because he’s a projection of who they want to be- powerfull (and wealthy)

Stolas from Helluva Boss actually presents a pretty similar power fantasy, he’s part of a family who lives outside the larger part of the law, he can kill (nearly) anyone he pleases, he’s physically and socially powerfull, he’s wealthy, he has a nuclear family, he gets to screw around with whoever he wants with the only one taking issue being his wife, the only real difference is that Stolas is queer (and much more fashionable... and pleasant)

Queer people should be allowed to have those power fantasies as much as straight people are

Speaking as a bisexual female myself, I absolutely ADORE Villanelle from Killing Eve, I really don’t care that she’s a bitch or has killed an uncountable amount of people, it’s fun to project on her, and seeing a very flawed woman fall in love and be vulnerable and open herself up to a relationship and get that relationship with another woman is AMAZING to me, that doesn’t make the relationship it’s self healthy or good, but it’s still fun to watch and plays further into that identification

I love Korra and Asami from Legend Of Korra, they’re a sweet, wholesome relationship between two sweet, wholesome characters and I adore them... but I’m allowed to adore Eve and Villanelle too, even if the relationship is toxic and the characters have baggage and Villanelle is literally a serial killer

Ofcourse enjoying something doesn’t make it “good”, I enjoy alot of trash B rated (and C rated) horror movies too, it doesn’t mean I think they deserve Oscars (if that’s really the measuring stick we’re going to use), but I think when it comes to representation, it’s important to distinguish the difference between good queer character and a moral queer character, they just... aren’t the same

Light Yagami from Death Note, Bill from Kill Bill, and Joker from Batman are all just... horrible, horrible people, there’s no doubting that, they are morally terrible... but my god are they fantastic charecters- they’re interesting, they’re three dimensional (even if only occasionally in the Joker’s case), they’re well written and complex, there’s a reason why they’re iconic and why they’re still talked about decades after their introduction into the world, they are GREAT characters who are morally bad, and characters like Hannibal and Villlanelle are in that boat too, they just so happen to be queer- and there’s what it all boils down to

People being queer, not queer people

Some of the most beloved examples above like Yuri On Ice and Legend Of Korra are praised for being about people who are queer, people who have stories focused on other things and are just allowed to exist without their sexualities defining them, and the same should be said and appreciated for villains who are queer too

In an age where so much queer-focused media is about tragedy (the period lesbian dramas and Gayngst teen media for example), and so much of it is focused on the same exact aspects of queer life (coming out, dating around, getting or being married, but mostly coming out), it’s great to have characters who just so happen to be queer without those things being the center of their storylines- and without them being canon fodder or the Gay BFF, or being a terrible stereotype from the 90s that just won’t die...

And that by no means is to say you have to like these characters- not at all, there are PLENTY of objectively good/well-written queer characters who I don’t like for whatever reason- but to call them bad representation just because they’re bad people is sweeping ALOT under the rug

And I know I’ve harped alot on avoiding queer-centered storylines like coming out stories and relationship dramas, but those are fine, they have their place just like everything else, really, they just don’t need to have the only place- that does a disservice to so many other types of queer stories- for the heroes and the villains, because morality and goodness have nothing to do with one’s sexuality, just like one’s sexuality has nothing to do with morality and goodness

#other #lgbtq

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simptasia · 3 years

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ultimate ship meme ask <3 for science trio!

ah, thank you! i’m so sorry it took me this long to respond, i didn’t mean for 2 bloody weeks to pass. i kept procrastinating or being too tired

daniel + charlotte + miles

General:

How long will they last?

eternity and then some

How quickly did/will they fall in love?

daniel @ charlotte, i’m thinking like a week or so. kinda hit him like a bullet

charlotte @ daniel, two or three weeks

daniel @ miles, somewhere from a couple of months to a year

charlotte @ miles, in living timeline didn’t happen, in limboverse, i’ll give her 3 months. and she loved him as a friend already anyways. i imagine it’s her who brings miles into the fold, allowing the sci trio to be fully realised

miles @ daniel and charlotte, oh Fuck Knows. it happens, but [shrugs]. and i like the idea that miles didn’t realise he was in love with daniel and charlotte (and sawyer and juliet) until waaay after their time together. like he falls in love with richard and then The Power Of Hindsight kinda fucks him over

(and for anybody who gets snippy saying that “a couple of weeks is too quick to fall in love!” or some shit: my bf fell in love with me in 2 weeks, and for me it took a month. so nyeh. also hurley/libby, sayid/shannon and charlie/claire)

How was their first kiss?

all of these take place in limboverse

daniel/charlotte: so i imagine this happens like right after they Remember, so emotions are running high and char is like “i’m gonna do something i should have done when we were alive” and just sorta grabs dan’s face and <3

and dan is stunned for a second and then sinks into it. you know that lovely trope of somebody being kissed and their eyes are open and then they practically melt closed from the kissy feelings. and they’re soulmates and this has been a long time coming and i feel cliche but uh, fireworks

daniel/miles: so the three of them have started Their Thing and like, they’re in a sexual relationship now but because char started this, dan is unsure about like, do him and miles do... stuff... together too? is that a thing? they were all touching each other during The Event. plus dan isn’t exactly sure how he feels about miles, but he’s been slowly getting more attracted to him over time. and also dan’s never been with a guy before. so yeah dan is overthinking things and meanwhile, miles is like “if he’s up for it, i’m down” but keeping his distance because like, it’s dan and he doesn’t know if dan is into him

that was a long build up to say, eventually the dan/miles side of the triangle does get figured out and after a moment of awkwardness dan kisses miles, tentative at first and then That Spark happens and they both get into it. at one moment miles pulls back just a bit and dan deliriously like... chases his mouth. because it turns out kissing miles is awesome. and miles notes dan’s a good kisser too, and dan isn’t even offended at the surprised in miles’ tone.

so in short, dan and miles’ first kiss went on for longer than miles expected because dan got tingly soup brain

also in both of dan’s first kisses with these two he kept his hands to himself outta 1. not thinking clearly because Mouth Things and 2. awkwardness. both char and miles had to grab dan’s hands and place them upon themselves, to remind him, you have these, please use them (there’s a line i give char: “i think you’d find i have many lovely things below my shoulders, dan”). from then on, dan is Characteristically Handsy. annnnyways!

charlotte/miles: it was very shortly after they met actually. pierre introduced them at the museum and there was attraction yes, but also this spark which they both wordlessly acknowledge. when pierre has left (just to get coffee hjjdhasa), they talk for a bit and then casually agree to go somewhere private. a coat check room. they got hit with familiarity and both of them being the type of people who have casual sex that information translated into “i’m gonna fuck this person now”

so basically their first kiss was messy, frantic, impulsive, clothes quickly being taken off, etc etc. thats how their friends with benefits thing started, even before they were friends, really. this was years ago and they became besties

Wedding:

in this set-up, it’d be dan and char getting married

Who proposed?

dan, technically but it wasn’t a surprise. marriage was something both of them discussed for a while before and char was the one who brought it up

(and here is where she jokes “you know what my mum would say about me marrying an american” and daniel gets an Awful Feeling from that)

Who is the best man/men?

well, miles, of course. richard is also one of the groomsman <3

Who is the braid’s maid(s)?

Why Weren’t You Allowed To Have Lady Friends

and besides that, most of the available women in lost have Moved On

annnnd i just remembered char has two sisters. chelsea and chloe

Who did the most planning?

char. it’s not that dan doesn’t care, it’s just she just has more preferences. patterns and colours and things like that. but they all pitch in at least a little

tho miles is the least help. at one point char holds up two swatches for bridesmaids dresses and asks which one he likes more (she’ll decide herself, she just wants Interaction, for her nerves) and miles doesn’t look up from his magazine and says “the left one”. char is annoyed and he says “whichever one is closest to purple”. they’re each a shade of green and blue

Who stressed the most?

oh, char. she never thought she’d get married so she’s never really emotionally prepared herself for it. or for planning a event like this. she isn’t paitent with people she doesn’t already like so dealing with wedding business people has been a task. and just. marriage isn’t stressful, weddings are. which is why dan is gonna be a good boy and absolutely help. and miles is also helping...

char: and how exactly have you been helping??

miles: [serious tone] i’m the plucky comic relief

char: [death glare]

miles: ...i’ll go pick up the flowers

- later -

daniel: heeey miles, you know how you and charlotte like to playfully snipe at each other? ...you can’t do that right now, she’s kinda stressed

miles: [wheeling in dozens of lillies] yeah, i figured that

char, from the other room: WHY ARE CAKES SO FUCKING EXPENSIVE

How fancy was the ceremony?

Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

i’ll give this a 7 outta 10 on the “ooh aah” scale. oh yeah they could absolutely afford a huge fuck off wedding but they didn’t want one. also another reason they didn’t have a Huge Wedding is that dan, char and miles legit don’t know enough people i always picture their wedding happens in like a park. a nice one. and there’s a real prevalant flower motif happening here. arch covered in flowers, petals on the ground, lotsa white lillies about. there’s a real English Garden / cottage aesthetic vibe to this. char’s got a flower in her hair and i just decided her wedding dress has like cloth white flowers on it, not all over it. so like, the whole thing is cute and elegant and flowery and more expensive than it looks. the main colours being used are white, light blue and lilac

oh oh, the cake is chocolate on the inside! and it’s white (duh) but with lilac flower trim around each layer. char never planned for a wedding before but once she adjusted to the idea she was like “this is gonna be really really pretty”

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding?

eloise. no explanation needed

Sex:

Who is on top?

well, everybody who can be, has been. char has defo given dan and miles the strap. the least toppage going on is dan topping miles. very rarely happens

Who is the one to instigate things?

well, char is the Most instigate-y and dan is the least instigate-y, with miles in the middle. and damn if that doesn’t sum up their dynamic

How healthy is their sex life?

Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

gonna give them all, overall, a reasonable eight. it happens a Lot, but it’s not a crazy amount. (except when dan and char are trying for a baby, then dan is... dan is... lovingly tenderized)

there’s diff variables (heh) at play here, but for the most part theres quite a bit of sex going all around. so yeah, their neighbours don’t like them very much, because char is Really Really Loud and easily satisfied

How kinky are they?

Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

that 8 is via the power of char and miles’ kinky tastes

dan is decidedly more vanilla but willing to try new things. and he’s got some latent kinks/fetishes hiding in him that these two bring out of him

i’ve gone into this many times but basically char is into being dominating, miles loves pain and as far as dan’s brain is concerned, Charlotte Is A Fetish

there’s more going on than that, but i’m being succint

How long do they normally last?

miles doesn’t last notably long, or notably short. but he seems like a real stayer in comparison to dan and charlotte. char comes quickly and repeatedly

dan, oh dan, he’s not. he’s not lasting long. this is not bad thing. he was worried about it at first but char is a-okay with this. she wuvs her boy. and besides, he has pretty good recovery. so second round if the first round was like a bit “oh”

dan is sensitive (and autistic!), sex is a Lot for him. anyways miles has defo joked about these two cumming at the drop of a hate. another reason the neighbours are annoyed, Please Go To Sleep Charlotte (nyet)

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms?

nobody here is unsatisified

How rough are they in bed? -

Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it

on this scale, i’m giving dan/char a 2 to 4, char/miles a 5 to 10 and dan/miles a 3 to 6. and all together oh... anything could happen

the general “rule” is Take It Easy On Dan, He’s Delicate

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do?

No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory

so much. so much cuddle snuggle uwuwuwuwu no no get back here miles you cannot escape, come back here and be loved

dan is a major cuddler, very tactile, char is pretty affectionate. miles used to be “meh” on affection but he’s warm to it these three cuddling in bed lives rent free in my head 24/7

Children:

How many children will they have naturally?

i’ve given dan and char 4 kids (three girls and a boy). penny, ada, marie and isaac. i’ve made charts about this

hypothetically, like in sims, i’ve given char and miles a daughter but i’m not commited to that idea, like i don’t have that in my Internal Canon

but he’s their papa too, emotionally <3

How many children will they adopt?

none, unless you count rats

Who gets stuck with the most diapers?

dan’s job requires the least Work, so he’s at home more often, so yeah

Who is the stricter parent?

char, but she’s not strict strict, this is just in comparison to daniel “but i can’t say mean things to my babies” faraday and miles “wanna learn how to shoplift?” straume. she’s not a Mean Nagging Mum stereotype tho, i won’t allow it

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school?

dan and char are Equally “you can’t be doing stuff like this, it’s not safe” whilst miles is lowkey encouraging it. but after a stern look he has to admit riding a scooter on the school roof is kinda fucked up. like miles is... miles but he doesn’t want his babies like actually hurt, he’s still a good dad

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)?

dan dan the photographic memory man

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings?

char, because i think that’d be really funny. and i want all of them to go to at least one meeting together, because they heard some bitch refer to their daughter marie as “that weird child” and that she warned her children to keep away from dan, char and miles kids. and also she refered to dan, char and miles as “deviants” cuz she feels kids shouldn’t have three parents

soooo char is going to publicly cut her down. verbally and viciously. dan and miles are also angery but they’re there to make sure char doesn’t actually physically beat this woman. and also this final caveat:

miles: [eating a sad looking muffin] and your muffins suck too

Who cried the most at graduation?

char but dan and miles are crying too

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law?

MILES IS A COP!!! and it’s never felt so good until the moment ada got busted for drinking at a party when she was only 17. oh miles isn’t that abusing your authority? “yeah but every cop does that, i may as well do it for my kid”

yeah, that crime is the worst thing i could think of for this, i don’t think these people’s kids would do like actual bad crimes

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking?

you know, i tend to picture miles cooking the most. my typical default for imagining char and miles chatting is that they’re in the kitchen, she’s holding tea and he’s making something on the stove. typically mac & cheese. or bacon

but really i think they all cook a decent amount

Who is the most picky in their food choice?

dan because he’s autistic and has some medical requirements, like my esoteric headcanon that he cannot digest meat at all

Who does the grocery shopping?

char and miles are more used to it, whilst i imagine dan has barely set foot in a grocery store in his life. but upon, like, being a grown up, he starts going more with char and miles and he likes it, for the most part. the lights are a bitch, tho

i think dan does it the least, miles the most, and char and miles go together more often than not. oh, and when char is out of pads and she forgot to stock up, miles is the designated Get Me Pads And Painkillers You Bastard man

tho that trope always confused me, as somebody who has at least 5 packages of pads in my pad drawer at all times. are there really period having people who don’t stock up ahead of time and have to ask their significant other?

but i digress

How often do they bake desserts?

not notably often, but i’ve defo imagined miles making Special Brownies

which daniel proceeded to eat all of in a fit of I’m Suddenly Very Hungry

what’s that puddle over there? oh it’s just dan

but anyways thinking on this, i can see these three making a cake together. and it goes a little wonky because their kitchen is small and Too Many Cooks. but a flat chocolate cake is a cake nonetheless. monch

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater?

dan: salad, the other option is No Good, so my boy is a vegetarian

char: i’ve made her more a meat lover than a veggie lover (tis her love of a proper English Breakfast) but not overally so

miles: defo likes meat (and savoury things in general) over salad. he’s not one of those guys whose a dickhead about it tho. veggies are just alright to him

tho i can see miles teasing dan about his “rabbit food diet” (which isn’t even apt because rabbits aren’t in the habit of mainlining noodles and pasta)

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner?

aaahh this feels like something dan would do, he wants to be ~womantic~

Who is more likely to suggest going out?

char, the extroverted outdoorsy one

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking?

dan because he got distracted by something. like he was cooking something in the oven and then some Musical Thoughts overtake him and he’s gotta write it down and wait 30 minutes have past OH GOD THE PIE BEEP BEEP BEEP

Chores:

Who cleans the room?

The Room. the Singular Room

anyways they all clean, it’s not very interesting to think about

Who is really against chores?

none of them. miles will half-heartedly complain sometimes but he grew up used to helping out around the house

Who cleans up after the pets?

dan and char clean up after their rats and cat because they are responsible pet owners. and char will clean miles’ wounds because jean-luc is a bastard cat

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug?

what kind of idiot... No!

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over?

i can’t see this, like any of them getting stressed about that

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning?

miles’ dollar now

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths?

dan takes longer showers, char takes longer baths

Who takes the dog out for a walk?

no dog, only kitty. kitties don’t go for walks

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays?

ohh i imagine char decks the place out for christmas. she loves christmas because good family memories. and also she has knitted christmas jumpers for her boys (and cat). christmas and halloween is the only major holiday that they got ham for. and by they, i mean char and miles

dan is just happy to be here

char: you know miles, it’s january and that little bat is still hanging above the fireplace

miles: if you wanna take him down, you can

char: ...no, i just wanted to adknowledge him

dan: he’s part of the family

What are their goals for the relationship?

uh, love, sex and babies. duh

Who is most likely to sleep till noon?

miles. coffee keeps him on his work schedule

Who plays the most pranks?

well, miles, obviously. i can’t think of any because i don’t really go for pranks but nothing elaborate, simple stuff. does that “orders a black coffee at macdonalds when your kids are in the backseat” count as a prank. miles would do that, pause for enough time for the kids to be like :O and then ask for their orders

there! done! wowee, bless any y’all who take the time to read All Of That

#this is like 50 miles long #had to restructure this because i like this meme but it doesn't look good #and defo ain't made for OT3s #agardenintheshire

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gameofdrarry · 5 years

Text

Drarryland: Info & FAQ

Drarryland is the second iteration of the Game of Drarry game/fests where Harry and Draco and your imagination are the perfect winning combination.

The game/fest is open for writer and artist signups!

Signup here!

Designed to be fun and stress-free, players dictate their pace to fill fun yet challenging prompts. Drarropoly, the previous game/fest, had prompts that were oriented toward HP-themed locations, Drarryland prompts have been crafted based on popular tropes like Eighth Year, Aurors, Creature!Fic, and many, many more.

If you’re seeing this, hopefully, you are a bit familiar with the game/fest concept. If not, you may view a shorter info and explanation post here. Or read the full info and FAQ under the cut!

WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?

Everyone! In the survey we put out at the end of Drarropoly, so many people admitted to being new writers or writers who had been on hiatus for a long period of time.

Writers and Artists can try their hand at shorter stories or smaller/simpler art projects in a super low-stress environment:

I loved the prompts and how it allowed me to try my hand at writing without starting from scratch.

I did really enjoy it, I’ve never been involved in a community before.

yes, it was very nice! although i’ve never done a game like this, or any sort of fanfic exchange of any kind, drarropoly made me want to participate in more in the future!

In addition, Drarryland now offers access to the Game of Drarry Discord server where players can connect with others in the community to get advice and support.

What kinds of art is accepted? Anything from simple sketches to fully illustrated scenes, and mood boards. Some art prompts have colour and perspective parameters but can be met across different kinds of media.

HOW IT WORKS

We asked for feedback after Drarropoly and listened to a lot of your comments! Word count limits are higher, there are more opportunities to pass on a prompt, and there are 6 bonus prompt opportunities.

There are so many opportunities to earn points and be creative, either as a single player or in optional pairs/groups in the larger Game of Drarry community. Your game/fest is what you make of it, and your level of participation is on your terms!

Drarryland gameplay (individual), the House Round Robins (groups), and The Owlery Exchange (pairs) are the three parts of the game, and players may participate in one, two, or all of them.

Players who sign up will be assigned a Hogwarts house at random. The mods have created four new houses (Pennydew, Rowandark, Shadowrose, and Dragonwick) and each mod is a Head of House. All submissions are worth 1 point toward the House cup.

There are lots of opportunities to earn extra points through bonus prompts, Round Robins, The Owlery Exchange, and commenting on other players’ submissions. More on that later.

THE GAMEPLAY

Players are tasked with making their way up the board, weaving their way through the Hogwarts grounds toward the House Cup/End of the year.

The road through Hogwarts is comprised of an array of six coloured squares:

Blue = Potions Class = Angst prompts

Green = Transfiguration class = Non-Drarry POV prompts

Yellow = Charms class = Fluff prompts

Orange = History of Magic class = Epilogue Compliant/Older Drarry prompts

Red = Defence Against the Dark Arts = Aurors/Adventure prompts

Purple = Divination class = The Fates know you’ll write the right thing - prompts open to wide interpretation

While prompts are grouped in these categories, players are not required to fill a prompt based on the category unless the prompt specifically requires it. Someone could land on angst and end up writing the fluffiest drabble ever!

What are the prompts like?

Fic prompts: Many of the prompts will have the same format that was prevalent in Drarropoly: (example) a situation or scenario with either 1) this thing -OR- 2) that thing - Minimum: 276 words - Maximum: 788 words. But this time around there are also photo prompts, song prompts, and a wider array of tropes and situations.

Art prompts: We are hoping to entice more artists to take part! The art prompts have been quite fun to come up with and vary from vague thematic scenarios to stricter palette restrictions or perspectives. Drarry in a video game to Harry and Draco are two sides of the same coin - use an element of gold, silver, or bronze in a depiction of this.

What if a player ends up exceeding the word count? The word count restrictions are there to serve as an exercise, pushing writers to think more about the word choices and styles they use. But if someone ends up writing 3000 words (or 20,000 - as was the case with a team of players in Drarropoly!) who are we to stifle your creativity! Every player is allowed one Free Period which gives them a pass to change the prompt in any way they see fit.

What if a player doesn’t like their prompt? It’s bound to happen! Whether it’s just not your thing or you can’t get a shred of inspiration from it, players will have the chance to pass on a total of (3) prompts. But it comes at a price. Players who pass on their prompt will have to serve Detention. At the beginning of the game, players will be given their Detention Punchcard which has three prompts to choose from that serve as replacements for ones that will be passed on. A player doesn’t need to inform the mods that they are passing on a prompt, the Return Player Form will afford them the opportunity to indicate that when they turn it in for their next move.

Once a player has filled the prompt assignment, they’ll head to the Returning Player Form to request a new prompt from the mods, who will roll the dice, move them on the board, and send out the new prompt.

BONUS PROMPTS

As a player makes their way up the road, every 10-12 spaces they’ll be offered a Bonus Prompt to complete at their leisure. They may submit them at any time until the game cut off on May 5.

There are six bonus prompt categories, one for each landmark on the board.

Hagrid’s Hut = Creature!Fic

The Great Lake = Other Realities

The Quidditch Pitch = Competition

The Library = Odd Jobs

The Forbidden Forest = Hidden Things

The Whomping Willow = Let’s Get Physical

OTHER DRARRYLAND GAMEPLAY ASPECTS

The board has a handful of wildcard spaces that have one mysterious prompt.

Players can land on spots that are connected to various Hogwarts secret passageways which will either take them forward or backwards on the board.

HOUSE ROUND ROBINS

Players will have the optional opportunity to join their housemates in writing collaborative stories. The mods will match players together with similar interests, likes/dislikes, and rating preferences. Groups of 5 will receive a prompt and craft a story together, each writing at least one section (250-word minimum / 1000-word maximum).

*If a player only wishes to participate in the Round Robin, they still must sign up to play the game. They’ll receive their first gameplay prompt, and can simply ignore it, opting to join the Round Robin group and create a delightful, collaborate masterpiece.*

Participation in this is dependent on the player joining the Discord server, where chat options and house channels make it easier to communicate with other players and the mods/Head of House.

ARTISTS

Artists can also join a round robin group. An artist is only required to create one work for the project but can create more equal to the number of rounds completed by the writers.

POINTS

Every “turn” by a player in the round robin is a point. Every “round” completed by the group is another point to each player. A completed story is an additional point to each player.

THE OWLERY EXCHANGE

The Owlery is independent of the game but can be a bonus opportunity to earn points for your House by exchanging letters with another player. You do not have to be a Drarryland player to participate in the Owlery Exchange. It has a separate sign up.

How does it work? When a player signs up, they can specify a preference to write as Harry or Draco or no preference.

They will also commit to a minimum number of letters and a schedule:

The Pen Pals - You’ll fill in your favourite themes and tropes in the sign-up form, as well as squicks, rating preferences, and word count ideals. The mods will match you with a Harry or a Draco that has similar preferences. Pen Pals will remain anonymous until the exchange is complete. This is part of the fun! All letters will be submitted to the mods via email, who will then pass them along. Instructions for this process will be delivered with your prompt information.

The Deadlines - Because this is a round-robin exchange, we’ve set deadlines to ensure that each player has ample time to draft their letters. Of course, you don’t have to wait for the deadline to send in your finished letter. At the same time, do not feel pressured to send it in faster if your pen pal replies quickly. In addition, you can send anecdotal messages if need be to your penpal via the mods, and if you both agree to write more than the required amount of letters, we encourage it! If you finish early, the mods will finalize your exchange and reveal your pen pal. You’ll be able to discuss and edit before being required to post.

Word Counts - The exchange has no minimum or maximum word count limits. We ask your preference on the signup form to try and match you with a similar writer.

Betas - We encourage you to use a beta! We have Harry-beta and Draco-beta rooms on the Game of Drarry Discord server where you can talk about your letters, get ideas, and ask for someone to look over your work.

Pinch Hitters - If you are interested in saving a life helping out and are super enthusiastic about this exchange, please sign up to be a pinch hitter. You may do this even if you are already signed up for the exchange. Simply check yes on the sign-up form. Or reply when the mods send out messages.

Points - If the exchange participant is also playing Drarryland, each one of their letters counts as a point to their house. A completed exchange also counts as an extra point.

Other Awesome Things About Drarryland

The mods are super excited to connect with the players on the discord server and have lots of fun things planned. The discord gives players the opportunity to reach out and meet other people in fandom, share ideas, offer help, and generally flail over the ship we love so much.

Have questions? Send us an ask or contact the mods below. You can also email us at gameofdrarrymod AT gmail DOT com

Spooky @buttertyrant // Fanny @fantom-ftnoise

Sara @glittering-git // Jess @nifflers-n-nargles

We want to answer any questions or concerns you might have, so please reach out!

#drarry #drarry squad #drarryland #hp fests #drarryland mods

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sapphicdalliances · 5 years

Text

Hi, Yuletide writer! First of all, my sincere apologies in my delay of getting this letter written up at all, and my enthused thanks for being here!

I’m a simple bitch with simple tastes; here is a general summary of my preferences, and fandom-specific notes and prompts can be found further down!

I very much enjoy:

Romance -- anything up to and including plotless shippy drivel

Short fics, or even collections of tiny fics

Long fics too, so I guess what I mean is, don’t feel pressured either way

Comedic tones, slice-of-life, lighthearted fun, any amount of improbable romcom tropes

Am also hella on board with misunderstandings, drama or angst as long as there is a happy ending!

I’m deeply okay with AUs, and most likely would be down for any modern, romcom, fantasy/fairytale, gender swap, or remix/crossover AUs you feel inspired to explore! My favourite settings include mundane/urban fantasy (witches! werewolves!), anachronism-stew-with-magic western fantasy jumbles, and disney’s Tangled.

Specific tropes I love:

Proposal fic

Wedding fic where the couple getting married is not the main couple

Outsider/third character POV of the main couple

Exes who are still in love/getting back together

Friends-with-benefits-with-feelings/did a bad job keeping it casual

Shipfic where two or more couples are contrasted

Oblique declarations of love/saying i love you without saying i love you

Provision and caretaking (acts of service!)

Aggressive matchmaking/wingmanning by an enthused friend

Hanahaki, or any other improbably dramatic instances of Cannot Spit It Out

Arranged marriage/fake marriage/fake dating

Epistolary fic

Regrettably I also love a/b/o, especially the kind that emphasises on scent safety and contains little to no actual sex

I’m not as into:

Political or social intrigue, mysteries, complex magical plots — by no means a dealbreaker, but not high on my list of priorities

Kidfic

First person narration

Soulmate AUs specifically

In general, please avoid:

Character death or serious/permanent injury

Animal abuse or death

Infidelity

Hopeless or downer endings

Fandom specific info starts here!

Princess Tutu - Ahiru, Fakir

I’ve loved Ahiru/Fakir for years and years — they are both very strong, willful but compassionate characters, and the way they intersect is just so sweet to me. While I would be ravenous for any tutu content, gen included, I really would be particularly delighted with some overtly shippy fic for this one, I hope that’s okay!

Suggestions:

Modern AUs: vet science major Ahiru + English major Fakir meet in theatre club?

Step Up-style remix where they become somewhat-unwilling dance partners because their regular partners are somehow indisposed and work better than expected

That one ending fix-it AU where Fakir writes her back into a girl and they retire into the village, the one we all have in our treacherous hearts, i will never get enough of these

Fakir and Ahiru’s relationship progression as observed by the other members of the school/town

Or mix it up with any of the tropes in my general list! For this ship, I would like a maximum rating of T, please!

Wotakoi

I love every ship in this manga equally but perhaps I love Kou/Naoya more equally than the other two? They are just so kind and so silly, and so sweet to each other in exactly the way both of them didn’t realise they were missing! Honestly, anything with these characters that’s along the lines of canon would be delightful; the particular energy of misfits realising that they don’t have to be alone is something very dear to me.

Suggestions:

Accidentally dating ft. Kou and Naoya, or, “and you’ve made out how many times now? Hmm. Yeah, that’s not technically a bromance.”

5 times Hirotaka and Narumi almost, almost kissed, and 1 time they did; the unresolved romantic tension may kill me and it would be worth it

What Hirotaka and Narumi taught each other (apart from the more mundane gaming and life skills, i believe that she taught him how to smile and be loved by others, and he taught her how to be loved by herself!)

Smutty domesticity ft. Koyanagi and Kabakura — a lazy Sunday, laundry in the sun, fucking on the couch, everything easy with familiarity

The fantasy/MMORPG AU, where Hirotaka is the lazy but brilliant crown prince, Naoya the hapless but beloved second prince, Koyanagi his spymaster and Kabakura the captain of the prince’s guard; Narumi his childhood friend-cum-betrothed, and Kou a mysterious archer who saves a distressed Naoya from bandits in the village?

The gang tries to play DND. We finally find a game that Naoya is good at.

Or mix it up with any of the tropes in my general list!

Nezha - Oubing

I feel 100 different ways about this movie and 88 of the ways are SO CHINESE. The filial piety, the familial sacrifice, the friendship! I do believe that Nezha and Aobing are in love, I hope this is a reading of the text that we share, but if not, gen about their friendship/rivalry would also be well-recieved.

Suggestions:

Aobing has been practicing bigu (a cultivation style that is meant to remove one’s need for food or water) since he was born; Nezha introduces him to food, and other creature comforts — do they have BEDS in the dragon palace for example?? Buddhist-style cultivation is very ascetic and difficult, but Nezha is so wild and full of feelings and love!!

Modern AU: delinquent Nezha and prim, proper exchange student Aobing

Modern AU addendum: nobody believes Nezha when he says he’s got a hot boyfriend in Taiwan and thinks that he has made Aobing up

Arranged marriage/political fantasy AU where the prince of dragons is given to the most controversial heavenly general in an effort to improve both families’ social standing

For a gen prompt, if you want to do something about Nezha and/or Aobing’s relationships to their fathers, debts and affections and resentments, that too would be lovely!

On the other end of the spectrum, i’m down for PWP with xeno tropes re: aobing’s dragon anatomy! So long as the top/bottom roles are not too strictly defined, i just like it when they’re equitable or switch!

And of course, feel free to mix it up with any of the tropes in my general list!

Kazetsuyo/Run with the Wind

I didn’t tag any characters because my favourites were not in the list, and of course because I do love everyone, but my personal priorities are in order: Shindo, Musa, Haiji, Kakeru, Nico-chan, Yuki, the bombastic twins, and then everyone else. The spaces between those positions are very small so if you happen to have a passion for a character/ship lower on the list, worry not, there is limitless affection within me for everyone!

Suggestions:

Shindo should get to take Musa to see the snow… he deserves that

He also deserves to run the ekiden again in his fourth year and not be sick and actually win section 5!

I do think Kakeru and Haiji are most definitely soulmates — if you choose to focus on one or both of them, I really do believe they are in the romantic kind of love, is the thing!

Perhaps their relationship, an inevitable drifting together, as perceived by everyone else in aotake?

Or Haiji comes to Kakeru’s graduation, all their tenderest affections still unspoken, and somehow, without any premeditation, by the end of the day they’ve kissed

You know what I think? I think Hana-chan likes and is capable of dating both of the twins, and I love that for her

Or gen canonverse with everyone (or just everyone you care about) taking turns caring for Nira and reflecting on the race!

As above, please feel free to mix it up with the tropes in my general list!

Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-Kun

I only selected Seo and Waka because they are simply my top priority, but if you want to serve a side of Chiyo/Nozaki and/or Hori/Kashima and/or Seo and Kashima being beautiful best friends and/or Mikorin being a beautiful himbo who we are delighted to have here, i would not complain at all!

Absolutely anything about them being goobery oblivious idiots in love would be perfect, such as:

5 times they went on a date without realising, and the time they realised

Everyone else literally just thinks they’re dating and they are completely clueless

Or on the other end of the spectrum, everyone tries desperately to set them up/matchmake for them, not realising that they’ve been going steady for four months

A hanahaki AU would be particularly hilarious with these two, I feel

Urban fantasy AU where Waka is a hapless monster hunter and Seo is an annoying but deeply harmless werewolf who’s been terrorizing his town??

Regency or faux-regency AU where Waka is literally like “drive by your rival’s estate slowly so that she may seethe with jealousy at the loveliness of your new hat” and Seo is like “oh goodness, he is courting me. What a fool. What an absolute buffoon.” and challenges him to a swordfight

Fairytale AU where Seo believes she must rescue the prince from the tower and deliver him back to the kingdom capital, and the prince, who had not realised he’d been kidnapped, thinks Seo is a usurper from a rival kingdom who must be supervised all the way back to the kingdom capital to be served her justice

Or anything else equally romcom-y, and of course, as always, throw in as many tropes as you like!

Thank you for reading this whole mess of a letter, and I sincerely hope I haven’t bored you too much. The most important thing to me is that whatever you end up writing, you are able to enjoy the process at least somewhat, and deliver a fic that you like! I can also be found on twitter at @hawberries_ (for art) and @popplioikawa (for general ramblings), and if you have any desire to send an anon ask to this tumblr with questions, i’m actually not sure if that’s allowed but i’d be happy to get some! Thank you again, and happy holidays!

#shut up phee #yuletide

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sol1056 · 6 years

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the most handsome slash nicest guy of the bunch

I was chatting with @ptw30 (as one does, when procrastinating on adulting) about how each season of VLD has given us different pairing-bait for Allura. But if the EPs’ hints (and what seems like a growing assumption in fandom) is that the story’s headed towards allurance, that’s pushing a message that’s... not really good.

Let’s review.

S1 was totally shallura bait, all over the place. S2 continued this to a lesser degree, but it was still a regular note.

I know how you feel, but you have to step away for a while. It's what's best for everyone.

S2 made various attempts at kallura bait, and really... fell pretty flat. Both the hug-in-space and hug-in-hangar were animated as rather physically-awkward interactions, which didn’t help. Then again, having two halves of a potential pairing on opposite sides of a significant racial conflict is gonna make it tough.

Well, sure, they're bad. No doubt about that. But at the same time, couldn't at least a few of them be fighting for good? ... It just seems crazy to lump everyone together.

Especially when one-half’s defense basically amounts to #NotAllGalra.

S3/S4 was chock full of allurance bait, all the way up to Lance’s impassioned speech inspiring Allura to magic them all out of the Naxzela explosion pokey.

This belongs to you now. If I had to lose Blue to someone, I'm glad it was you.

And then there’s S5, most of which was dominated by equal parts lotura bait and Lance Being Annoyed. Lance’s characterization regressed to shades of who he was in S1, and make it clear exactly what kind of character he really is.

He’s a Nice Guy.

Behind the cut: behold the evidence, minor salt at VA commentary, and two relationships that stand in contrast.

Lance’s Nice Guy Behavior

In S1/S2, Lance’s flirting is both inappropriate and pervasive, and he continues long after it’s clear that Allura neither welcomes nor enjoys his attention. She’s not even drawn ambiguously; her facial reactions make it clear.

Talking? Eating? Are you asking me out on a date?

Note that the narrative undercuts her agency. She reacts with disgust (and Hunk shows a kind of tired disapproval), but the rest of the casts’ lines treat it as a joke. Her reactions are the punchline. It’s soon clear that one time Shiro smacked Lance down for the inappropriate come-on was the exception, not the rule.

It’s not even “just not that into you,” so much as “does not enjoy being treated like a sexual/romantic object in situations entirely unrelated to that.” And with one exception (when Lance lucks on suggesting the one thing that Allura might actually want to do), her reaction doesn’t change. It’s there from the start.

The way she’s animated is almost as consistent as her irritation.

Once into S3/S4, one could argue that Lance had finally realized a friendship had more value. He stopped flirting and started treating Allura with respect, listening as a friend, and recognizing her value and skills.

Until Lotor shows up.

Lance’s opening reaction could be from distrusting Lotor as an enemy...

Look, it’s Prince Lotor, just hangin’ out on the bridge.

...but he quickly moves into distrusting Lotor as competition.

Lotor: ...you and I, a royal alliance between Altean and Galra... Lance: How ‘bout we don’t imagine that?

Lotor’s line could be seen as a thinly-veiled marriage proposition, but there’s wiggle room to take his words at face-value as simply suggesting an alliance. Notably, Allura shows no major reaction, let alone anything near the negative reactions she had for Lance’s flirting.

We get reminders all season that this isn’t a one-time thing. Lance does it over, and over. He’s jealous when Allura responds favorably to Lotor’s compliments.

He’s territorial when Allura and Lotor leave without him, attempting to follow even though the invitation was explicitly only to Allura.

The next shot shows what prompted this reaction: Allura has taken Lotor’s arm. Allura is not animated as particularly physically-demonstrative; most of her touches (except for Coran) tend to be at the shoulders. This specific arm-touch characterizes Allura and Lotor as two people used to formal interactions, and kind of old-fashioned.

The problem is the ambiguity in the framing. I can’t shake the sense it’s meant to ‘reveal’ why Lance reacted badly, and make us sympathize with Lance’s unhappiness at seeing ‘his’ girl off with someone else.

And then we have Lance stressing over Allura to the exclusion of all else, while the team’s busy trying to fix the ship and save their lives.

What’s happening? What do you think they’re doing now?

I’ve seen arguments this is meant to show he’s just, like, really worried. The narrative undercuts that, though, because Lance is the only one expressing these worries. The others could’ve acknowledged his words, and made it clear that Lance is just saying much louder what everyone else feels. But they’re not only blasé, they’re downright annoyed with Lance to the point that Pidge demands for Shiro to get Lance out of their faces.

Canonically, we’ve seen nothing to establish that Lance has an exclusive position vis-a-vis Allura. She’s only extended as much friendship to him as she has to anyone else on the team, yet Lance takes that as grounds to scowl, sulk, and obsess.

This is what Nice Guys do.

To paraphrase an article otherwise not worth quoting, rom-coms teach us ‘the one’ is usually the one who was there all along. (The same article also concluded that “when you get on well already, sometimes all it takes is time (or possibly alcohol) for you to see someone in a new light” and now I think I need to go break something to get over this wave of revulsion.)

two relationships in contrast

Of course, I can’t mention all of the above without pointing out that in-canon, we have two other characters who’ve done it right: Shiro and Lotor.

Shiro's respectful of Allura’s knowledge and authority, not only frequently asking her opinion, but then following her orders. He has his own opinion and voices it, but he does so without dismissing Allura's. He worries but is proactive (he'll go with her, instead), and he doesn't get in her way when she makes her own choice.

When Allura insists she’s part of things and will play a role, the rest of the team is a bit taken aback. Not Shiro. His lack of refusal indicates he sees her position as valid.

Allura: I'm a part of this fight against Zarkon as much as anyone. I'm going. Does anyone have a problem with that? Shiro: Fine. Suit up.

An awful lot of media would have you believe it’s a valid counter-point to say since she’s pretty and a princess, by definition she’s not suited to joining the charge. Shiro doesn’t bother. (Interestingly, the only one who gets sent anywhere alone in S1 is Keith, and there’s an argument to be made that Shiro’s pre-existing knowledge of Keith’s abilities mean Shiro has a greater comfort zone for that.)

Or in short: Shiro is a Good Man.

Meanwhile, Lotor is clearly framed as the ‘bad boy’ -- from his actual position as the son of the Big Bad, to his smooth appearance (that hair), to his accent that codes as ‘high class’ to Americans. If Shiro is the stalwart quasi-military guy who opens doors for women but respects their position in the chain of command, Lotor is the quintessential rebellious rich boy (and even turns out to have a mushy center).

Yet Lotor consistently shows respect for Allura’s agency and perspective, always checking with her first, rather than presuming. He asks for consent, rather than plowing right past Allura’s dis/comfort.

He’s deferent when it’s her area of authority, openly credits her, and seeks her opinion. The few times Lotor gets snappish, it’s usually related to his parents, and Allura shows every sign of realizing the distinction. With no flirtation in play, there’s little reason to see him as having romantic ulterior motives. Sure, he may have other motives, but I’d have a hard time making an argument that Lotor sees Allura as a purely romantic object.

Lotor may be ‘the bad boy’ in this paradigm, but if you look at the way he -- like Shiro -- treats Allura, he’s not a boy, either. Like Shiro, Lotor is also fundamentally a Good Man.

a dash of VA-related salt

For the most part, I’ve rarely had reason to side-eye Josh Keaton’s interviews, but the recent one where he said something to the effect of Shiro shuts down Lance’s jokes (euphemism for ‘unwelcome flirtation’) because Shiro’s jealous he can’t make those jokes himself...

Cue reaction gif.

Really? We’re talking about a character who insists on persistent attention of a romantic nature, with no regard for the recipient's clear disinterest or obvious discomfort.

We have a name for this: sexual harassment.

Yet Josh thinks the only character who ever speaks up to shut that shit down is doing so because he’s of the ‘if you can’t, I can’t’ school of reasoning?

Josh, wtf, over. Uncool.

There are a lot of places where @dynared and I will bang heads in our interpretations, but somewhere he commented that fandom might be surprised at how the writers aren’t nearly as progressive as some fans would like to think. (Or that the EPs would like us to believe.)

There are smaller examples of that: Keith pulling a #NotAllGalra, or Lance paraphrasing right-wing tripe as “Galra-on-Galra violence”. Or the way early S3 demotes Allura, or makes her fearful, self-doubting, and incompetent. Lance is the biggest case, though: if the end-game is really allurance, that’s like an entire series of positioning the Nice Guy to eventually win his prize.

In a word, that’s disgusting.

If they couldn’t manage a romance subplot without falling into such corrosive tropes, personally I would’ve preferred romance be left out altogether.

#voltron legendary defender #characterization #meta #analysis #come for the sugar stay for the salt #vld #voltron

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digging-holes-in-the-river · 7 years

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I had some more thoughts on Toby from The Year of the Flood. (Spoilers ahead, but only about her character, not about the plot.)

While reading The Year of the Flood, I realized that Toby was one of the few female role models I’d encountered in fiction.

This isn’t something that bothers me; I can relate just as well to male role models as to female ones, so the lack of female role models never seemed like a big deal. But it’s interesting to analyze what makes Toby someone I look up to, and why I don’t normally see women like that in fiction.

(This post is absolutely not intended as a contribution to the discourse. It’s a comment on me, and the sort of characters that appeal to me. It’s not a criticism of our culture’s literary canon, or a moral statement about what we need more of in fiction. It’s just a personal post about my personal preferences.)

Anyway, the most obvious explanation is that I just don’t read that many books with female protagonists. (”Protagonist” is important because it’s easiest for me see viewpoint characters as role models.)

But even when I do read books with female protagonists, I don’t usually think of them as role models. I admire strong female characters, but it has to be a particular sort of strength; most “strong female characters” aren’t people I look up to.

I mean, most male characters aren’t people I look up to either. I’ve read... five or six works of fiction this year? And Toby is the only character I’ve encountered whom I think of as a role model.

There’s a very decent chance that, if I read just as many books with female protagonists as male ones, then I’d have equally many male and female role models in fiction. Which perhaps says something about my reading habits, or the amount of representation in the genres I enjoy, but that’s not the point of this post.

What I want to write about is... there’s a few “strong female character” tropes that I encounter a lot (either in actual fiction, or in stereotypes about strong female characters), and I want to explain why those tropes don’t appeal to me, but Toby does.

“Strong female character” tropes that I have encountered:

(1) The woman who is told she can’t do X because she’s female, so she puts on men’s clothing and does X anyway, and proves all of them wrong.

I enjoyed the Alanna books as a kid, and they were a very clear example of this thing. For those who haven’t read them, Alanna is a girl who wants to be a knight, but girls aren’t allowed to become knights, so she sneaks into the knight academy and masquerades as a man for many years, eventually achieving knighthood.

I also see a lot of real-world versions of this story, in social media posts about women in STEM. There, the story is usually “she entered this scientific field, despite the stigma against women doing that, and then she persevered and made great scientific discoveries, even in the face of considerable sexism”. The women in these stories don’t literally put on men’s clothing, but their entire story is about succeeding in a man’s world.

Anyway, despite being a woman in a male-dominated field, I’ve pretty much never encountered sexism. I don’t think of myself as a “woman in STEM” so much as just a “person in STEM”. And so I don’t really relate to the struggle of “a woman trying to make it in a man’s world”. Those stories can be interesting to read, but they’re not the sort of role model that applies to my life and circumstances.

(Also, for the record, if I was one of those early-1900s women scientists who appeared in social media posts, I would be so pissed if everyone telling my story just focused on the gender stuff. I’d be like “why can’t you tell a story of the scientific obstacles I overcame, and the long hours spent in the lab despite everyone telling me that my theory was crazy and would never work?” That’s the story that male scientists and inventors get, and it pisses me off that women scientists only ever get stories about being a woman and overcoming sexism. Like, sure, that’s a part of the story. But it’s not the whole story.)

(2) The strong female character whose “strength” is basically aggression, who revels in kicking ass and making snarky comments.

I can’t think of any specific examples, so maybe I’m only imagining this trope? But I feel like I’ve seen it in Hollywood movies, ones with a lot of action scenes where the strong female protagonist fights the bad guys and kicks all their butts.

This kind of woman (if I’m not just imagining this trope) is always heterosexual, and has some debonair love interest with whom she has a very combative relationship. They fight a lot (possibly violently) but they both seem to enjoy the fighting, and sometimes the fighting leads to sex.

Anyway, this trope definitely isn’t me, and it’s not something I look up to either. I don’t wan to be more aggressive, or more combative, or more snarky. In general, I don’t enjoy being around snark and aggression. I want to be calm; if I need to enact violence, I want to do it because “this is what needs to be done”, not because I actively revel in acts of aggression and revenge. And my ideal romantic relationship has basically zero fighting.

(Anyway, just because this stereotype isn’t my role model, doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with it. It’s just not who I, personally, want to be. The only reason it would annoy me is if it were put forth as the only available model of female strength.)

(3) The strong female character whose strength is defined through leadership: she’s strong because she’s the boss, the manager, the CEO. She tells other people what to do; she makes important decisions; she interrupts men during meetings.

She’s the loud, assertive female lawyer who won’t let herself be intimidated by the male lawyer from the other side, who wins her case decisively even though the other lawyer is lobbing personal attacks in her direction, or playing dirty behind the scenes.

She’s the female policewoman (e.g. Clarice Starling) who catches the criminal and earns the respect of her peers.

Basically, she’s a woman whose “strength” is defined as career success, often in a traditionally male role. (I guess this is similar to point (1), but in my mind they’re different, because in (1) her strength is “succeeding in a man’s world” and in this one, her strength is “succeeding in a high-status, challenging career”.)

Anyway, there’s plenty to admire about this stereotype (bravery, not taking shit from anyone, taking on a challenge and then succeeding at it), but it’s not something that I personally aspire to. I don’t really care about career success (especially not in a “becoming the boss” kind of way). And... in a lot of ways, I’m more of a collectivist than an individualist, and... I don’t really look up to characters whose main strength is “pursuing personal success”. If they’re fighting for something greater than themselves, then sure. If they’re seeking a high position in the company because they honestly care about the company’s goals and want to improve its functioning, then sure. But if they’re just doing it for the sake of their own status, then... that’s not something I personally look up to.

I mean, Toby does eventually accepts a position of leadership, but it’s not because she aspires to a high position in her community. She doesn’t want a position of leadership, but she takes it out of loyalty to her mentor and duty to her community. The ideal she’s embodying there is “responsibility to others” not “a go-get-it attitude” or pursuit of success for herself.

(I don’t think Clarice Starling is just doing it for her own status, btw. I assume she actually does want to make a positive difference in the world. I admire her as a person, even if she’s not someone I think of a role model.)

(4) I don’t know if this counts as a “strong female character”, but there’s definitely the trope of the “empowered woman” who ignores society’s advice and pursues her own happiness instead. The woman who’s trapped in an unhappy marriage to a man she no longer loves, and who divorces him and travels the world in order to find herself and discover what makes her happy (even if she has three kids at home). In this story, she’s heroic for not letting herself stay trapped, and for not listening to society’s fuddy-duddy, prudish moral dictates about marriage; she’s heroic for recognizing that her happiness is important, and then pursuing it.

Again, I’m a collectivist, and I admire sacrifice for the greater good, not pursuit of self-interest. So this isn’t a trope that appeals to me.

(5) The woman who goes her own way, even though society is telling her not to, based on a firm inner sense of conviction that that’s the right thing for her to do.

I don’t know if this is a trope, but I’m including it because I want to emphasize that this isn’t what bothered me about point (4). I’m not looking for strong female characters who do everything that society tells them to do. If a character sees a better way to do something, or has some firm inner calling that carries her away from an ordinary life, then that’s actually something I admire. I admire people who have firm inner convictions and a strong sense of purpose / destiny.

My problem with (4) isn’t that the character is following her own way. It’s that her own way is selfish, it’s shirking responsibility, it’s prioritizing her own needs far beyond that of other people.

(6) The strong woman who doesn’t need no man.

This kind of character is defined by her independence, her lack of need for a romantic relationship, her preference to be on her own. Maybe she spends her whole life childless, or maybe she goes to the sperm donation clinic and becomes a single mother, but either way, she proves that she doesn’t need a man’s help to succeed in her life goals.

(I can’t think of any characters who fit this description, but I definitely know some real-life examples.)

Anyway, this isn’t something I personally look up to. I mean, I do want to be independent. I’m not in a relationship, I might never end up getting married, and I want to be able to function on my own. And even if I were in a relationship, I’d want to be able to take care of myself and not be an emotional burden on my significant other. But ultimately, I do want to get married, assuming I find the right person. And all of my independence comes from “don’t want to be a burden on people I care about / society”, not from “men suck, I don’t need them, and I don’t want anything to do with them”.

(7) The woman who wants absolutely nothing to do with childcare or having children. She’s strong because she’s not letting society tell her what to do. Society keeps asking “so, when are you planning to have kids?” and she keeps saying “fuck off, never”.

This is fine; I have no objection to this character; it just isn’t something I personally aspire to. I probably do want kids, and society (and friends and family) aren’t breathing down my neck saying “when are you going to have babies?”, so this trope just... isn’t something that’s relevant to me. (Though I can totally understand it appealing to deliberately childless women who are tired of putting up with well-meaning relatives’ invasive questions.)

Anyway, there is one specific “strong female character” trope that really does appeal to me, at a really deep level, and Toby is an absolutely perfect instance of that thing. That trope is:

(8) The woman who calmly, stoically endures everything that happens to her, and who works hard and accepts her situation, even if it’s not ultimately what she would have hoped for. The woman who embraces responsibility, and who focuses on her duties instead of on self-interest.

Throughout the book, Toby puts her own needs and emotions aside in order to help other people, and to do what needs to be done, and I find that deeply admirable. She doesn’t sit around pining over what she can’t have; instead she says “that emotion is not useful to me right now” and ignores it in favor of doing her duty. She has an unrequited crush, but it’s not tenable to act on, so she keeps it to herself and doesn’t let it interfere with her role in the community. Etc.

Like, you never hear Toby going through “what if”s, wishing life had turned out a different way. You never hear her lamenting her situation or complaining that life isn’t fair. If you asked her, she’s probably say “of course life isn’t fair, what did you expect?”

She’s stoic and practical and competent and resourceful; she’s good at doing what needs to be done. She’s the kind of person you’d want around in a crisis, because she stays extremely calm and knows how to help.

She’s stern and no-nonsense and doesn’t put up with any crap (either from the kids she’s teaching, or from herself).

I’m not very much like Toby, but... she represents something that I want to be.

(Another character like this is Katie Nolan, from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, whom I’ve written about before.)

Relatedly, I remember that, in a college English class, we watched Disney’s Snow White and then read a feminist critique of it, saying that actually, the witch was the real heroine (and a much better feminist icon) because she went after what she wanted, instead of demurely accepting things like Snow White did.

And I remember writing a grumpy essay, saying how I thought Snow White was a much stronger character than the witch, because she took a bad situation and made the best of it. She didn’t sit around pining for all the things she couldn’t have; she was practical and hard-working and focused on her duties.

(That year in college, I had a lot of fun watching old Disney movies, and seeing how clearly they fit into the decade in which they were made. Snow White was made during the depression, and contained a lot of depression ideals of making do with what you have. IIRC, the witch was the bad guy precisely because she was unwilling to do that.)

Anyway, maybe it’s not a good idea to be like Toby. Maybe she holds too much in, and needs to relax sometimes and let some of her emotions out. Maybe it’s not so bad to rely on other people, or to show weakness every once in a while.

(And trust me, I’m not nearly as strong as Toby. I show weakness all the time; I very frequently come to other people for help.)

But... multiple times lately, I’ve endured some difficult situation by thinking “what would Toby do?” Like, this sounds dumb, but a couple days ago it helped me get up the nerve to set a rat trap (I hate rat traps, I’m always terrified they’re going to snap my fingers off) because Toby would just take a deep breath and do it. (Well, Toby wouldn’t kill a rat. But she wouldn’t be afraid of the trap snapping off her fingers.) It helped me deal with a big spider behind my bed, and then sleep in the bed anyway, because Toby wouldn’t have been scared of that. It helped me maintain the resolve to work on my personal finances yesterday, even though I was really tired and just wanted to go to bed, because they needed to get done, and Toby wouldn’t have let tiredness get in the way of doing her chores.

So anyway, that’s the sort of strong female character I admire. (And it has nothing to do with being female; I also admire men who are like this. One of my work friends is like this and I admire the crap out of him.)

I think I had more to say on this topic (or maybe some more strong female character tropes to list), but luckily for all of you, I can’t remember what it was.

#comments on books #maddaddam trilogy #the year of the flood #margaret atwood #WALL OF TEXT

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operationrainfall · 5 years

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Title Towards the Pantheon Developer Connor O.R.T. Linning Publisher Connor O.R.T. Linning Release Date May 16th, 2018 Genre RPG Platform PC

When I first heard about Towards the Pantheon, it wasn’t so much the coverage about the game that caught my attention, but rather its developer. Despite my being an avid fan of classic RPGs, especially those that draw inspiration from the SNES and that golden age of RPGs, what ended up sticking with me enough to try this game was the man behind it; Connor Linning. A writer, musician, and game developer, spending just a few minutes on Connor’s blog made me realize the passion and drive this man possesses. I think it’s his ambition in the face of complacency attitude that sparked my interest in his project, Towards the Pantheon. 16-bit graphics, original sound score, narrative and gameplay that draws influence from classic RPG tropes, Towards the Pantheon is a game that honors some of the best this genre has to offer.

Towards the Pantheon drops you into a world in which four quarreling groups are pitted against one another by the Sworn Light, a militaristic entity using divide and conquer tactics to take control of the world. Immediately, we meet Freyja, a young warrior tasked to journey to the Pantheon, the headquarters of the Sworn Light, to deliver a fatal blow to their organization. Advised by Wuotan, an elder of her village, she first sets off to find a willing companion, Bam the cat. From there, she will venture into the four civilizations and interact with their people, learning of their struggles and the oppression by the Sworn Light. Freyja will meet new companions, explore the vast lands, and discover the depth of tyranny and evil the Sworn Light have instilled in the world.

The story of Towards the Pantheon is fairly straightforward, in that you have four isolated populations further turned against one another by an all-influential puppet master. Themes of prejudice, intolerance, and misinformation make up the core of the story, but there is plenty more to spark initial interest. The lore and the individual details of the four types of beings in this world are intriguing and are a pleasure to discover. I also like how equal attention is provided to both a grand scale and an individual level in terms of how the Sworn Light is oppressing the world. Hearing about how individuals, ranging from children, business owners, students, etc., are impacted is a nice touch, as it demonstrates how a world event influences the individual on a personal scale. I found these personal perspectives well written and was motivated to learn as much as I could about this world and its people.

The plot has its shortcomings, however, as one of my biggest gripes is with the strength and pacing of the plot. Simply put, the plot starts slow and remains more a framework than a fleshed out story. After Freyja is tasked with her quest, it takes quite some time before the plot picks up again. In between, we see Freyja and her growing party reduced to errand runners. Yes, plot details do get filled in, but it’s not enough, both in quantity and quality. Bland may be too strong of a word, but at times I definitely felt like saving the world was more an excuse than a purpose, as I was forced around the world on fetch quests and meet ups. Another element that concerns me is with the Pantheon itself. The game is Towards the Pantheon, yet the Pantheon ends up as just a place that houses the final boss. There is a dire need of lore or some unseen importance to this keyword. Give me something. Imagine if Ocarina of Time were instead called The Legend of Zelda – That Room atop that Flight of Stairs. Nobody cares about that room, it’s the Ocarina that’s central to the plot, receiving appropriate lore and significance. Yet here, the Pantheon really is just a place; a feeble finish line.

And finally, there is the horror element of the plot, which doesn’t actually show itself until the last stretch of the game. I am referring to the segment right before the Pantheon in which you have to unlock and cut through an old mansion/ hotel. It feels completely like a tangent, just thrown in at the end. As for the events within, I believe they do occur to the characters in their reality and it’s not some screwed up dream sequence, yet it came out of nowhere and didn’t fit the tone of the previous 3/4 of the game. Although it does make you think about who or what those soldiers really are, with the hints and notes on disappearances, kidnappings, and the electropunk culture of replacing body parts, I wouldn’t consider the game a “horror game” just because of a portion of play. It also fails to add significant depth to its characters, as I believe this segment is supposed to explore the individual characters’ inner struggles, whether it’s regret, loss, powerlessness, or what have you. But again, just throwing it in at the end doesn’t do any justice and it falls flat. Lack of pacing and plot strength make the plot an overall underwhelming experience.

In terms of its implementation, the story unfolds mainly through conversations between party members, NPC interactions, and scattered fragments of books or journal entries found throughout the world. Not a whole lot of the plot is unveiled through the main characters themselves and their interactions with each other, as is common for the genre. Rather, much of the plot is left for the player to discover. Speaking with NPCs multiple times throughout the game, completing side quests and requests, and reading through all the fragments will color in the plot. From history and the origins of the Sworn Light’s threat, to the current desolation and impact, most of these details and the depth they bring require the player’s willingness to discover them.

While I can appreciate this unorthodox method of delivering a story, I felt the narrative overall suffered from it. Typically, this method is used as a support, providing backstory and anything else that fills in the history and lore of a central narrative. Here though, I don’t appreciate this method at the cost of a robust story building effort. I would have preferred a stronger, more directly conveyed story that details unfolding events, rather than the fragments we collect along the way. I understand the intent of this choice; to let us discover the plot ourselves, however, this method lacks the immersion I was seeking during play. The conversations and fragments we come across are not substantial enough to draw you in and keep you immersed. Instead, they only provide just enough to eventually string a story together. Again, I acknowledge the attempt at something different, and while the plot has plenty of intrigue in and of itself, the potency and impact just wasn’t there, failing to consistently trigger immersion or draw my emotional investment.

I’ll admit, there are plenty of helpful hints too

As for its characters, Towards the Pantheon does an adequate job of presenting a set of characters that are easy to care for, instilling a want for seeing their journey through. There are plenty of personal details and friendship building elements to be had throughout and they stand out nicely. The campfire scenes that occur in save locations provide the most character development, allowing the group to recap, unwind, and interact with each other. Their sharing of their personal struggles, past pains, future goals, but also their good natures, humor, and uplifting encouragements to one another, all help to provide much needed depth. I especially like the expressiveness of the characters’ portraits during dialogues, as they help add a nice emotional element to their conversations. Since Freyja is mute, these expressions she shows really help convey her youthful and kindhearted personality without words. My only complaint would be that I wish there were more growth or transformation. The characters we see at the start are pretty much what we end up with. Besides that one point, I enjoyed journeying with this group.

*Heart melts

Towards the Pantheon also follows a traditional RPG style for its gameplay, as exploration and combat make up the majority of play. The world is made up of expansive maps with plenty to discover. Whether it’s finding hidden caves and secret caches for extra items or locations hiding fragments of plot lore, exploration is key to unveiling everything this game has to offer. Exploration is further enhanced by the unique traits each character possesses while on the world map. Although Freyja’s unique skill is climbing ladders, Bam the cat can fit within small openings, Mishima can hack through locked doors, and Phenez can turn invisible, bypassing guards to enter restricted areas. As the team grows, revisiting previous towns and areas is always a good move. Lastly, since exploration and, to a degree, backtracking are encouraged, the game also features a fast-travel system from the start. In typical fashion, once you’ve reached the town a first time, you can fast-travel to and fro.

For the most, combat is your traditional turn-based style, but there are specifics to using each character. With Freyja, each of her attacks requires Stamina Points (SP), which regenerate during every turn. Bam’s skills use EP, the SP equivalent, but they do not regenerate, requiring Bam to rely on EP regenerating skills during the fight. Mishima uses CPU and GPU points, her HP and SP equivalents, meaning that every attack she unleashes also does harm to her. Finally, Phenez uses NP, his HP, so again his attacks also do self-harm. It makes combat far more engaging, as you need to plan your actions accordingly. I found that having a particular strategy for each character’s usage helps greatly. Not having a sound strategy or being able to adapt it during a tough battle will have consequences. Something I do appreciate, even if a party member is incapacitated during battle, they will still receive the same amount of experience points, which is especially helpful for newly joined members, as they all start at Lv 1. With every level gained, a point is rewarded to be used for that character’s specific skill tree. Increases in health, power, recovery and more can be unlocked, so leveling is key. Finally, there are extra combo skills that are unlocked as you collect cards throughout your journey. These help immensely during tougher fights and can be found or purchased in packs throughout the game.

Combat isn’t perfect however, as I found the difficulty level is a touch higher than convention, especially early on. Fortunately, with some grinding, the campaign is very much doable and the grinding required is within a reasonable level. Yet, my issue is with the time it takes. The number of battles needed to maintain an acceptable challenge level is a bit high, taking a bit more time than I would have preferred. Also, combat can drag on, especially with multiple enemies on-screen using their own sets of skills during battle. While enemy encounters are visible and avoidable, they are very much a necessity, so quicker battles would have been ideal.

A final note on gameplay, throughout the game you will encounter event specific items used to solve puzzles, complete subquests, or access new areas. Instead of an auto-use style, you are required to open the item menu and search for the specific item you wish to use for interaction. At first, this is a non-issue, but as your inventory grows, this can become an inconvenience. I prefer auto-use, as most of the time choosing the right item to use, give, or place is fairly predictable. Again, a minor inconvenience, yet it springs up often enough for me to comment on.

Now we move to what I believe are the strongest points of Towards the Pantheon; its aesthetic appeal. This game looks and feels perfectly like a golden era RPG. Visually, the 16-bit graphics are fantastic, capturing the magic of the SNES styling. Everything is custom designed, from sprites to tilesets and the results are amazing. The portrait art showing the expressions of our heroes during their conversations is also incredible, providing an ample boost to the moods and tones of these scenes. Especially for Freyja, I love these changes of facial expressions, as they bring a feeling of genuine life. Humor, thought, and reactions to each other are made so much more lifelike with these simple changes to their faces. I can’t praise that level of detail enough. My only complaints are that, first, there were concept drawing and other artwork that never made it into the game. I would have liked to have seen them incorporated during cutscenes or in-between snippets because they further depicted our heroes in an appealing light. Secondly, the layouts of some maps are a bit jarring. For example, when you leave a forest and enter an electropunk town, the contrast is far too sharp. Better transitions from forest to urban are needed badly, as it looks like a rushed effort on map design.

I would have loved this in-game

The audio efforts are equally impressive and are some of the most impressive I’ve experienced in the genre. As a musician, Connor Linning does an incredible job of adding energy and life through his compositions. Every track fit its area or event perfectly. Plus, there’s plenty of music to enjoy. I love that he incorporated various dungeon themes, multiple battle themes, and an assortment of tracks for almost every location, all in that classic chiptune style. This is easily the game’s highest point and worth a playthrough to experience. Overall, the aesthetics of Towards the Pantheon are brilliant, perfectly capturing the look and feel of that classic RPG style.

Again, inclusion of art would have taken the aesthetics to another level

As a first offering, Towards the Pantheon is impressive, hitting many of the major RPG notes that makes a game of this genre outstanding. For RPG fans, many of the gameplay tropes are there; party based combat, unique skillsets, and traits and peculiarities both in and outside of battle, yet it all comes together and it works. While the ball was dropped in terms of story development and gameplay has its flaws, it was still very much a pleasure to play. I would recommend Towards the Pantheon to anyone looking for a solid 10+ hours of classic RPG to lose themselves in. Like me, it will take closer to 12-13 hours to complete your first run, and with a price tag as low as $1.99 during a Steam sale, there’s no reason to miss out. And finally, although the game is a far cry from perfection, I hope we see more from Connor Linning in the near future, for as he says, “If you fear failure, then consider that it is better to fail creating something that fulfills you than to fail creating something that is heartless.”

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

TBT REVIEW: Towards the Pantheon Title Towards the Pantheon

#classic rpg #Connor Linning #Connor O.R.T. Linning #ConnorORT Studios #JRPG #Pantheon #RPG #Towards The Pantheon

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aro-and-tired · 3 years

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Aromantic Experiences in Fandom: Survey Results

PART 1 - PART 2 - ANALYSIS: TIME IN FANDOM - ANALYSIS: AROALLO VS AROACE

This is the last of posts I am planning to make when it comes to the results to this survey, and in this one I want to focus on any differences between the opinions of the allosexual respondents versus the asexual ones. I suggest having looked over at Part 1 and Part 2 of the survey results, and/or keeping them open in another tab to easily confront the results.

Aroace respondents (including oriented and angled aroaces) were 558. Aroallo respondents were 154. The sample size for aroallos is, clearly, quite a bit smaller, and thus more likely to be inaccurate, still it is hopefully big enough to adequately represent the opinions of aroallo fans. People who identified as non-SAM aros, or who said that they were questioning or otherwise not identified with the given options are not being included in this discussion.

Not all questions of the survey will be discussed again in this post, in particular those questions were the aroace and aroallo respondents answered in a very similar way will not be discussed here.

As usual, summary is at the bottom of the post.

General Fandom Questions

Out of the entire samples, 543 aroaces stated that they are currently involved in fandom spaces, as well as 145 aroallos. The survey has a section for people who were not involved in fandom, however, this section will not be discussed here because the sample size for people not involved in fandom is too small to be considered accurate. Instead, there will be some focus on the questions aimed at aros currently involved in fandom.

In general, would you say fandom spaces are aro-friendly?

Aroallos were more likely than average to answer no to this question (47.6%), while aroaces answered no less often than average (40.6%). Aroallos answered yes way less often (4.1%), while aroaces were more in line with the average results (11.8%).

Do you think it's easy to find aromantic specific content in fandom?

Aroallos were more likely to say no (90.3%) than aroaces (85.8%). Aroaces were more likely to say yes (6.7%) than aroallos (4.1%).

Do you think alloromantic (non-aromantic) fans are in general respectful of aromantic interpretations of characters/media?

Aroallos were more likely to answer no (61.4%) than aroaces (55.0%). While the amount of people who were unsure varied, the two groups were about equally likely to say yes.

Content Creators Questions

418 aroaces stated that they have created fancontent. 116 aroallos stated that they have created fancontent.

If you have created aro content, would you say it got more or less attention than your non aro content?

Aroallos were more likely to say that their aro content got less attention (77.8%) compared to aroaces (63.8%). Also, some aroaces said that their aro content got more attention (3.4%), but no aroallos answered this way, saying that at most it got the same amount of attention.

Have you ever felt discouraged by your fandom when it comes to making aro content?

Aroaces were more likely to answer no to this question (37.8%) than aroallos (31.0%). Out of those who did feel discourages, aroallos were more likely than aroaces to say that it was out of fear for receiving hate for it (42.3% vs 35.5%).

Shipping Questions

Aroallos were more likely to be into shipping than aroaces (92.2% vs 87.5%). There were 142 aroallo shippers, and 514 aroace ones. The questions aimed at non-shippers will also not be discussed, as once again the sample size was too small to make comparisons. Instead, there will be focus on the questions aimed at shippers.

Do you consider non-romantic shipping (shipping characters as queerplatonic partners, friends with benefits, etc.) to be a valid form of shipping, or do you think shipping only refers to romantic situations?

Aroallos were more likely than average to answer yes (78.2%), aroaces were less likely than averages (69.2%). Aroallos were also much more likely to state that shipping only applies to romantic situations (14.8%) than aroaces (6.6%). Instead, aroaces were more likely to answer that only some forms of non-romantic shipping count as shipping (23.6%), while aroallos were strongly less likely to answer this way (7.0%).

When it comes to your ships, do you prefer content that focuses more on the romantic or sexual aspect of the relationship?

The differences in the way the two groups answered this question were very significant. Aroaces were most likely to answer that they like romantic content and dislike sexual content (43.4%), which is also the option that appeared as the most chosen in the general results. However, this was the absolutely least chosen option by aroallos (5.6%).

Aroaces were also fairly likely to say that they prefer romantic content, while also enjoying sexual content (25.2%). However, aroallos were less likely than average to chose this option (13.4%).

When it comes to the option for liking both equally, aroallos were far more likely to pick it than aroaces (46.5% vs 26.2%).

Many aroallos said that they prefer sexual content, while also enjoying romantic content (26.8%). This option was far less chosen by aroaces (4.7%).

Lastly, some aroallos said that they prefer sexual content and dislike romantic content (7.7%). Very few aroaces picked this option (0.6%).

Here I will give you a list of tropes commonly found in shipping fan content. I ask that you pick 5 that you consider your favorites. You can pick less than 5 if there aren't enough tropes that you like, but please try not to pick more.

When it came to aroace fans, the most popular tropes picked align fairly well with the general results. The five most popular are Domestic Fluff (51.7%), Slow Burn (49.8%), Mutual Pining (49.0%), Friends to Lovers (41.4%) and Enemies to Lovers (39.8%). There are the exact same five tropes that resulted most popular from the general results, although in slightly different order. The rest of the tropes still roughly follows the same pattern as what was in the general results (described in Part 2) with minor differences.

Things are, however, fairly different when it comes to aroallo responses. Here the five most popular tropes are PWP (47.1%), Mutual Pining (45.1%), Enemies to Lovers (40.8%), Friends with Benefits (38.0%) and Domestic Fluff (32.4%). Slow Burn and Friends to Lovers are here kicked out of the top five, replaced by PWP and Friends with Benefits, both tropes with a heavy sexual side to them.

Because the rest of the tropes were also somewhat out of order, I’ll report which ones aroallos picked in order of most to least popular: Slow Burn, Established Relationships, Porn with Feelings, Friends to Lovers, Unhealthy Relationships, Fake Dating, Hate Sex, Getting Together and Soulmate AU, Unrequited Love, Jealousy/Possessiveness, Friends with Benefits to Lovers and Hanahaki Disease and Telepathic Bonds, Arranged Marriage, Break Ups, First Dates, Love at First Sight.

Porn with Feelings is far higher on the list (seventh most popular here vs eleventh most popular in the general results). Hate Sex is also much higher (eleventh here vs seventeenth in the general results). Friends with Benefits to Lovers is the only “sexual” trope that didn’t make a significant jump. On the other hand, Friends to Lovers was much less popular among aroallos, as well as Soulmate AU.

Here I give you the same list of tropes, but this time I ask that you pick the 5 tropes you dislike the most. Again, you can pick less than 5, but please try not to pick more

Once again, for aroaces the top five most disliked trope are the same as the overall most disliked tropes. In order Jealousy/Possessiveness (54.5%), Unhealthy Relationships (52.3%), Hate Sex (50.2%), Love at First Sight (39.7%), and Hanahaki Disease (38.7%). The order is a little different, with Hate Sex being higher in the list compared to the general results, but the tropes are the same. The rest is, once again, very similar to the general list of most disliked tropes, with the most significant difference being that the sixth most disliked trope here was PWP, who was not as unpopular in the general results.

For aroallos, the top five is Love at First Sight (52.1%), then Soulmate AU and Hanahaki Disease and Jealousy/Possessiveness (47.9% for all three), and Unhealthy Relationships (36.6%). Aroallos were a lot more likely to dislike Soulmate AUs compared to aroaces. On the other hand, Hate Sex is much less unpopular for aroallos, being only the tenth most disliked trope.

Other sexual tropes such as PWP and Porn with Feelings were in the same position, as second least disliked tropes. Friends with Benefits was the least disliked trope, with only one person picking it.

Summary

Aroallos reported finding fandom somewhat less aro-friendly than aroaces, as well as apparently finding aromantic content harder to find. Aroallo creators reported that their aromantic specific content received less attention, and that they more often felt discouraged by fandom when it comes to making said content than aroace respondents. Given the smaller sample size of aroallos, it’s a little hard to say whether this was a statistical fluke or if fandom is indeed less friendly to aroallos than to aroaces. Once could say that perhaps the aro content that aroallo want is less likely to be made and less likely to be well received, but unfortunately there weren’t questions asking details regarding the kind of content either group wants or makes.

When it comes to shipping, most aroaces prefer romantic content, often disliking sexual content, and very few of them prefer sexual content. On the other hand, most aroallos enjoy sexual content, with the majority of aroallos either enjoying both romantic and sexual content equally or having a preference for sexual content. This is also reflected in the tropes either group prefers, with aroallos showing a lot of interest in tropes such as PWP and Friends with Benefits, compared to aroaces who as a general rule are not fans of these tropes. Aroallos also care less for Friends to Lovers, and tend to dislike Soulmate AUs more than aroaces do.

Thank you for having read through this post, even more if you read through all the previous ones as well. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact me.

#aromantic #aroallo #aroace #alloaro #fandom #survey results

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