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saltpepperbeard · 6 months

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Poison into Positivity: A List of What I Liked in OFMD S2

Hello hello everyone! Things have been a little rough around here. Even away from the more heated takes, I've still seen a few "down in the dumps" murmurs. To which, I'm giving y'all big hugs, but also offering up some little bits of warmth! I wanted to share quite a few bullets of the things I enjoyed about this season. Maybe it'll serve as a reminder, or maybe it'll just serve as a chaotic, silly little read as per usual PFFF.

But I invite you to read along, and even add some of your own points should you feel inclined! Also, this might not even be my full list; these are just the ones that came to me quickly/off the top of my head. Still, let's dive on down like a fantastical, dazzling goldfish, shall we?

All the callbacks/parallels. My goodness. When I tell you I'm a SLUT for metaphors/parallels/callbacks/etc etc. Seeing so many things and being able to just *Leonardo Dicaprio pointing meme.* I know people might not share that same opinion because some might view it to be excessive, but I personally LOVED being able to point at my screen and be like "oH EYYYYYYY!!!" Maybe because it makes for such immaculate gifset/meta material <3 SJKJDLHSK

The costuming and makeup. WHEN THEY TALKED AT ECCC ABOUT EVERYONE GETTING HOTTER, THEY WERE NOT KIDDING LMAO. EVERYONE LOOKED SO, SO GOOD. and listen, i am on my knees begging for them to give ed with his hair up back to us. i need Her back,,,ALSO, SOMETHING SOMETHING COMPLICATED EMOTIONS TOWARDS STEDE'S LATTER HALF LOOK, BUT ALSO...GOD DAMN, MR. DARBY,,,,,,

Speaking of Mr. Darby, the acting in this season. The ACTTTINNNGG. Everyone acted their ASSES off. Everyone put their entire piratussies into this season. Though, I'm PARTICULARLY impressed with Taika and Rhys, because again with their "oh we're comedians lol so idk drama can be Difficult Difficult Lemon Difficult." MMMM I THINK THE FUCK NOT, MY GUYS LMAO??? They both did SO well with all the drama and painful moments. The acting in episodes 2, 3, 6, and 7 in particular like...God. GOD!!!

I loved so many characters in this season, and I'll of course have to give two individual shoutouts to my two favorite new ladies, but man. LET'S GO FRENCHIE!!! ALWAYS A DELIGHT!!! FANG/KEVIN MY ABSOLUTE SWEETHEART. JIM SERVING ABSOLUTE FUCKING GENDER THIS SEASON. OLU OLU DARLING OLU. PETE NEVER MISSING WITH HIS ONELINERS. LUCIUS BEING SO THEATRICAL AHDJKSDK LIKE NATHAN PLEASE YOU KILL ME. ROACH MAKING ME LAUGH OUT LOUD NUMEROUS TIMES AS HE DOES. WEE JOHN AND HIS KNITTING AND DRAG!!! AND THEN OF COURSE MY DEARLY BELOVEDS, ED AND STEDE. I JUST LOVE THEMMMMM!!! But okay okay okay-

Zheng my beloved. I just love this badass pirate queen with her sweet little pigtails and her IMMACULATE LINE DELIVERIES SDHJKSKL. A lot of my favorite deliveries from the entire season came from her quite honestly. Please see: "Girl, how ARE you?" and "Hiiiiiii. I KNOWWW it's been a day" and "I've killed mediocre men. I've killed exceptional men. But you're the worst kind: a mediocre man who thinks he's exceptional."

AND ARCHIE MY BELOVED. She kills me because I remember seeing like, those ~*~audition tape whispers~*~ WAY back in the day, and subsequently thinking she was going to be quite a different character. Only for this silly goofy bubbly energetic darling to pop up and snag my heart. HER deliveries kill me also, like when she goes "Like...STEDE Stede?" and the whole "I was IN the fuckin' snake!" also hhngngngngnershkfhslkds tattooed ladies Hot :(

Speaking of which, the comedy. THE DELIVERIES. THE WAY I LAUGHED OUT LOUD NUMEROUS TIMES THROUGHOUT, EVEN WITH THE DEEP UNDERCURRENT OF DRAMA/ANGST. The whole bit where Stede is in hysterics over his cursed coat is just hsjkdhsklds; it will NEVER not make me wheeze. And then, like I said, almost EVERYTHING Pete says this season kills me; another thing that will never not make me laugh is "a doggie...?" weird little pirate show with weird little humor my beloved

The ROMANCE??? I genuinely was going into the season with the expectation of getting maybe like, one or two Gentlebeard kisses. Imagine my shock and utter delight when we ended up with FOUR, AS WELL AS AN INTIMATE SCENE, THE LETTER SCENES, AND THE LOVE PROFESSIONS. Like, one of them dropping a legitimate "I love you" felt like an unrealistic expectation--the HIGHEST dream tier really. And then wouldn't you know it. And that doesn't even account for all the rest of the couples either! The murder wives having their chaotic little moments of fucked up affection??? LUCIUS AND PETE GETTING ENGAGED AND THEN MARRIED??? HELLO??????

The sets! I know people have pointed out that the world felt a bit simplified this time around, due to budget restraints and what have you. But I still loved what they did with the world even with the various constraints. The market in episode 6 is a PARTICULAR favorite of mine; it's just so lush and colorful. I also love what they did with The Revenge during episode 6 too!

Also, this might be an unpopular opinion, but I really actually liked that they filmed on location. First of all, love that the Kiwis got to be right at home in Aotearoa. Love that they have an even more special connection to the show now. But second of all, I just like when scenery is...actually THERE? It feels way more TANGIBLE. Don't get me wrong; that hugeass wraparound screen that they use to film a lot of sets is a technological marvel. But I'm a sucker for practical.

The deeper and more complex dives into character motivations/trauma. Like, homie lol...When I tell you episodes 6 and 7 utterly set my brain alight in the best way possible. I was CHUGGING through thoughts. You know those gifs where someone is walking around and ranting/passionately talking,,, yeah. Yeah. Maybe because a lot of it "struck a chord" with me indeed, but I love love LOVE getting brain food like that.

Speaking of brain food, in PARTICULAR, the deeper dives into Ed's self-loathing and into Stede's troubles with confidence and masculinity. A lot of Stede's choices were fueled by those two things, and it was SO friggin fun to catch all of them, put them in a jar, and shake them around. I've seen a lot of people fearing his actions in the latter half were out of character, but to me, I don't see it that way. I just see a man who has been so spurned, so left behind, and SO deprived, a man who is stuck thinking he has to be someone else to mean something. And I think that plays a lot into even the EARLIEST developments we saw in season 1, so it was just so intriguing to watch everything messily play out.

THE INNKEEPER. THE INNKEEPER MY BELOVED. SO much about that episode absolutely has my heart. All the different developments, the stakes, the pacing, and the payoff at the end. Not to mention that I had a FEELING that mysterious figure in the trailers was Hornigold, so it was so SO validating to see him pop up PFFF. And also, all those dream/gravy basket sequences were so so good too. I don't know if it's the chemistry between Taika and Mark, or the deeper symbolism, or the lines that have become vocal stims for me SJKDLS (please see: ooOOoooO eddie eddie eddie...you're laying some heavy shit on me, bro), but man. MAN.

And this one gets its own bullet because of course it does: the fucking mermaid scene. Like, are we kidding. ARE WE KIDDING. THE ROMANCE OF IT ALL? THE FANTASTICAL-NESS INDEED?? THE WAY IT WAS ALL FUCKING PRACTICAL AND RHYS SWAM DOWN TO TAIKA AS A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GOLDFISH AND THEY HAD TO THROW HEART EYES AT EACH OTHER UNDERWATER??? WHAT THE FUCK!!! And don't even get me started on Kate Bush lol. This Woman's Work might easily be one of my favorite songs, if not my FAVORITE song from the season. And man. Man. The whole meaning behind Ed seeing Stede as this beautiful, sparkly being, and not some hypermasculine/extraordinary thing. He fell in love with Stede for who Stede really is. And so I ADORE that acknowledgement.

Speaking of songs, the MUSIC!!! Absolute bangers all throughout. And I loved how there seemed to be even more intermixed within the episodes. Like God... "These are the kids..." 🗣️ HELLO MY LOVE I HEARD A KISS FROM YOU 🦗🦟🦗🦟🦗🦟 . And all the beautiful classic piano pieces and NINA SIMONE AND JUST HSJKDHSFJKLHSKD????

Okay, I've always had and STILL have complicated thoughts and opinions on Izzy, but man, seeing him interact with the Revenge Crew was really something. Seeing Stede's influence come over the lot of them like a warm blanket, extending its welcoming and familial hands...It was just lovely. I love seeing our little sea family care for each other so much. They've probably all hurt so so much in different ways, so to see them all being a collective heart is just so nice.

Speaking of which, the queerness of it all, the queer celebration of it all. The way the whole crew is just...a representation of queer people finding each other, and subsequently finding love and family in each other. Like, when the whole world wants to cast you out, you pull each other in. When no one else wants you, you take refuge in each other. And just...the joy, beauty, and wonder that can be found in that.

And speaking of which x2, the overall care that was put into the entire thing, the effort that was put into the entire thing. I know Max fucked us over with the budget, which subsequently fucked things like the intricacy, the amount of characters, and especially the pacing. But, I don't know; I personally could still tell everyone involved was trying so so hard to deliver for us. Based on the little details, the little callbacks, and the little moments that felt so catered to us, it just seemed so...gifted to us. Not to mention of course, the way they so deliberately chose to end on a hopeful note in case we never get a third season. They care about us. They've always cherished our excitement and passion, so it just...idk; it feels so special to have a bit more of an intimate connection like that. I've never been involved with a piece of media that so avidly SEES its audience, and celebrates along with us. So, despite everything, despite any sort of troubles, despite any sort of lows, that's a big part of what has me clutching all of this so closely to my chest. And I really hope they can still see that love, because I want nothing more than for them to see this beautiful story through.

Also, getting to enjoy this with everyone. Getting to ride the wave from the beginning of filming, all the way through the finale. Getting to see all the excitement, all the theories, all the art, all the fanfiction, all the gif sets, all the meta, and everything in between. It has carried me through some nastiness in my personal life, and has subsequently served as a very welcomed distraction. It's been such a pleasure getting to delight in this new content with you all, and I hope we get to do so into the future. <3

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fraddit · 1 year

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I saw this gifset by @whosoldherout and felt like it dovetailed nicely with a collection of screenshots I already had tucked away for an ephemeral "I've connected the dots..." sort of meta that I never fully got my head around writing. So, I'm just going to dump everything on the table, so to speak, and see what happens.

I call this the Evan "but I didn't" Buckley collection:

With Ali after the truck bombing in 2.18

With Maddie after the pulmonary embolism in 3.01

With Taylor after the crane climb in 4.14

He can't really say "But I didn't" anymore, can he?

This is interesting to me, because if it were someone else, this sort of thing could be seen as a pretty positive and well adjusted outlook. Nothing bad actually happened, so there's no need to dwell on any horrible might-have-beens. Like the inverse of Bobby's "Don't go borrowing trouble."

But instead, with Buck, it seems to be a sort of defense mechanism. A refusal to face one part of reality by focusing on a very specific other part of reality, on the fact that he didn't die. As long as he didn't die, everything is fine and everyone should all just move on like nothing happened at all. Like maybe this is Buck's version of Eddie's "Brush it off and keep moving forward." Or perhaps it's an easy way for him to excuse choices and behaviors he doesn't want to look at or change.

idk, I'm not sure how much of this is actually clicking for me. Like I said, ephemeral. I've connected the dots, but how or to what, I'm not fully sure.

We also see a glimpse of it in 4.14, this time being used externally toward Eddie:

When Eddie starts the talk by bringing up how he almost died in the shooting and even other times he almost died, Buck interrupts him. He tries to derail what Eddie's talking about to the point that Eddie has to put his foot down about it:

But even after that, once Eddie brings up the well

Buck can't help himself. He has to interject again with this reminder that Eddie didn't die. And I feel like it's at least in the same neighborhood as the "but I didn't" examples above. A sort of willful refusal to entertain even just basic discussion of bad-things-that-didn't-happen.

Again, this isn't anything approaching a fully coherent thesis. But needless to say, I'm very excited to see what happens with the upcoming death doula plot, because I feel like this is something that has perhaps been building for a lot longer than just the lightning strike.

#evan buckley #evan buck buckely #911 fox #shut up fraddit

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lacebird · 1 year

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Hi! Would it be possible to post a tutorial of how you created the text in this post /post/707087448305451008/removing-yellow-tint-on-photopea-heyyyyyy thank you :)

💜 TYPOGRAPHY TUTORIAL (PHOTOPEA EDITION) 💜

Hi anon! It's really easy! here's how i do it! <3 as always, basic gifmaking knowledge is required. feel free to ask if you have more questions <3

tutorial below the cut 💜

i. prep-work & coloring

You write out your text as normal in white, then you change the blend mode to exclusion

right-click on your text layer, and click on blending options to open the layer style window. Tick the color overlay box and click on the tab. there you'll be able to change the overlay color and the blend mode (i used pin light for this, but you might have to play around with the color and blend modes to find the one best for your gif)

(i also added a background color to match the text)

at this point you'll also want to add drop shadow to make the text readable. i usually turn down the distance to 0 and keep the rest of the settings as is, except maybe increase the opacity (which i didn't do here bc i'm laaaaazyyy)

ii. wobbly text

okay! so now the coloring bit is done. double-click on the white square on your text layer to select all of your text. on the top of the page you'll see options to change font, text size etc (idk what this is called but you know what it is). you'll need to click on the box that says wrap

click on style > flag, and then you'll be able to adjust how "wobbly" you want the text to be (in this example the bend is at 40%)

press okay and you're done! hooray!

iii. white outline

the last step is to add a line to make the text pop even more. first, create a new blank layer

right-click on your text layer and click on select pixels. click on the blank layer you just created. then you go to edit > stroke. these are the settings i use.

after pressing ok, you'll now have a white outline around your text. move the outline layer around until you're happy

this is how it looks when it's done!

really not my best work but :P this scene is meant for a different gifset but i kinda like this coloring lol hope this answers your question!

#allresources #photopea tutorial #gif tutorial #typography #usergif #photopea #tutorial #*tutorial #it's not exactly like the text in my other tutorial but it's the same #it's all about the colours you chose and the blend mode

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saturnskyline · 1 year

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hi. so i saw this gifset on the dash, and it's entirely too late for me to be awake doing this but i am now spiraling over kim's outfits. so anyway here goes nothing 👍

(below the cut is my descent into madness. you have been warned)

now when i saw these gifs i began musing in the tags, as one does, so here they are for context:

(feels truly unhinged to screenshot my own tags but oh well)

so once i started thinking i found it impossible to stop (as often is the case with this gay mafia business) and i decided to go through and look at each of kim's outfits. for science

now i know the fandom has looked at wardrobe stuff before, so it's very possible that someone has gone through this already. BUT! i'm already in way too deep here so i'm just gonna go ahead with this dfsdhgjsdf

kim's wardrobe is, to me at least, very interesting. you get a mix of things, depending on how he is presenting himself. for example:

(here we have wik, kim, and what seems to be something in between)

it's hard to differentiate between these styles at times, and i think that's purposeful bc kim appears to dart between personas: beloved singer, distant son, solo detective... the list goes on

so first things first! i was largely right about the jacket thing! in most every one of his outfits, he has some kind of jacket on. however, the first time we actually see him without a jacket is actually in this scene where he gifts chay with the guitar:

(hasty screenshot to prove my point and yet jeff is still doing the jeff thing. bless)

okay so i was wrong about that. i think the jacketless look is definitely intentional on his part – to help him seem unguarded, especially since he is giving a gift – but the first instance is still not the scene i thought it was. however!!! there is one thing i'm really excited about, and it's about the next thought i had in the tags...

every time kim wears white it relates to chay.

now you may be thinking, wren. is that really the case, or is this claim a bit of a stretch? and now i answer.... *gestures helplessly* some of this may be a stretch! but i can explain, and i will!

let's look at the instances of kim in white then, shall we?

this, to me, is a quintessential wik look. far more approachable than the full black leather, and even his typical sleuthing fits (although a lot of it is in his mannerisms tbh, remember that withering look he gave big?). now this one miiiight be a stretch... but to me it still fits my thesis bc i feel like kim dressed this way for chay on purpose so he would look more like one of his peers. just my two cents

first sleuthing scene where white is involved. here, kim is investigating porsche's (and therefore, chay's) parents, and he gets a call from chay, which he ignores. everything and nothing in this scene is about chay; he's not in it but he actually is. (now if you're thinking, wren, that doesn't make any sense... you are not the only one. idk what i'm talking about. let's carry on)

our boy in songwriting mode! worth noting that, with the combination of the shirt and the pants, there is more white going on here than usual. here, instead of avoiding chay, he actively remembers him and even looks a little.. fond? *gasp*

the confession scene :') this one is particularly interesting bc it's the same jacket kim wears when he's in full dark mafia mode (more on that later). like most instances of kim in white, it's a dark jacket with white peeking through, and this scene might be the best instance of that. he reaches back when chay offers his feelings, and opens the door to.. a relationship? idk but something with emotions

(jeffrey, sweetie, i'm so sorry about the screenshot quality. consider it retribution for your gender crimes?)

NOW. here is the look that made me start this deranged analysis in the first place. not only is it sans mafia jacket, but it is a full white shirt! he cuddles chay on the couch! they talk (?) about their feelings (?) ... well i mean, he's clearly having a hard time being vulnerable, but at least there is progress being made :)

(bad screenshot, bad moment. they r matching)

would you believe the next white-wearing instance is THIS MISERABLE SCENE. the jacket's back on, he's desperately trying to put up his guard again, and he blatantly lets chay think that he never had feelings for him (lies lies and more lies... we all hate it here :D)

look. i'm aware this is the biggest stretch yet bahaha. i mean my man is dressed for SCHOOL. however. the focus of this scene is him learning that chay didn't show for his audition, so it still fits in my book!! idc idc

(if you look at chay's hair here, this scene also has bisexual lighti- *gets shot*)

pretty self-explanatory, he shows up to the bar to fight chay's friends and confront chay. about as chay-related as you can get

finally! the Human Shirt™ !! about as on-the-nose as you can get, really. while wearing a white shirt that reads "human" and no jacket, kim has, demonstrably, his most human moment in the show: he breaks down crying over chay. cue jeff acting his heart out while his own song plays in the background (why don't you stayyyy~)

#10

it's a flashback scene, but we see kim watching chay in the studio. he's mostly guarded, but a little white comes through. good stuff

#11

putting these together bc they are two different moments but the same outfit. 1) kim learns that porsche and chay have disappeared, and 2) he contemplates the state of things after korn's "death". i put the family moment here too especially bc of what he tells kinn: "you don't have time to think about other stuff anymore", basically "eyes on the prize". now perhaps this only applies to his older brother, but in the case that we apply it to him.. we can't really be sure whether he is sticking to his personal main goal or breaking from his own advice. i suspect the former bc at this point, he seems to see chay as his main priority, despite his family's situation (again idk if this makes sense, but just. go with it. lol)

#12

dare i say? the sexiest example?? no mafia jacket, full white shirt, and yet, unlike the other white shirt instances, this one isn't about his emotional vulnerability with chay. no no, here he takes out six guys without much difficulty, in an attempt to protect chay (and then he leaves the bodies, but still! the love is there!)

(a gif for fun! worth pointing out that kim also acts to protect chay the first time he wears that white shirt... :0)

in conclusion... idk what i am talking about, and frankly, if you are still reading this post i am very impressed lol. but yay kim's clothes and motifs, fashion as a disarming tactic, and white as a color of vulnerability!

#i apologize this is so very unhinged #would you believe i did all this instead of working on my wip.#also i don't know anything about color theory tee hee #i was not joking about it being too late for this pls i am so tired #late night rant that became sort of meta?#much to think about #kim theerapanyakul #kimchay #kpts #kp meta #ramblings

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olderthannetfic · 9 months

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Tumblr seems to be sliding in a downward spiral, and it feels like the start of the end of a fandoming era for me. I've been through it before; platforms are born then die, and life fandom finds a way. I'm just not looking forward to floundering for a bit, and dreading what the next hub will look like.

AO3 isn't really a place geared or meant for the same thing, and that's fine. My only fandom-related activity took place on AO3 only for a few years between my leaving LJ and joining Tumblr, and I lived ;-) But during that time, I was my own little island in fandom. Reading, leaving a few comments, not being super active. It's only when I found a community again that I was back to being really active in fandom once more.

And it's not that I actually use Tumblr to post about myself, but I do use it to read and reblog cool things - art, gifsets, science stuff, discovering new fandoms, and the like. I'm not sure where else I could find my people, with sameish purposes. The other sites I've tried didn't fill that niche in a way that suited me, in part because of how they look and work, in part because of who and what is(n't) there.

I have DW & PF accounts just to be safe, but I'm not very fond of group chats Discord-style - and without Tumblr, IDK how I'd even hear of new communities where I might pop in once in a while, loins girdled and everything. The micro-blogging platforms are not what I'm looking for either. Sure, I can follow a few DW comms and blogs; I already occasionally do and I will be more consistent about it if I must.

But one of my greatest fear is that the next platform will be phone-based, app-only, or some such BS - and that is something I just won't be able to deal with. Phones are tiny, it's uncomfortable to write anything, I don't like touch screen and much, much prefer a proper keyboard and a mouse (copy-pasting on a screen? (x_x) << it me), art/pics are too small to properly appreciate, a phone isn't comfy to hold for a long time for me, and the app system means you have no control over anything as a user… and that anything there must be Apple Approved, dick-free, blood-free, and tasteless. And I say this as someone who's pretty much uninterested in sex IRL or in my entertainment ;-) I still support and want the tits, the gore, the everything, and as long as I have the tools to curate - oh, wait. Curate things myself? That's not something that's popular these days, is it? It's not going to generate money, if I'm happy ;-)

So… I guess I'll play some more on Neocities, and see if anyone wants to have webrings again? (it would be fun and nostalgic, but not really viable on a large scale; people who haven't known those would just laugh and point and go on the InstaTok of the time).

So here is my little cane-waving rant of the day! I know things evolve and change and that in ten years I'll be rolling my eyes at my moping. It's only that I feel tired of moving from one shitty platform to another, of fearing I won't adapt (or more accurately won't want to adapt given the annoyance/benefit ratio) to whichever new place things will move in a few years. It's saying goodbye to a former home, moving, and hoping you'll make another home elsewhere kind of sniffles today!

We already know the next platform. It has been Discord for a few years now.

If you want the one after Discord, I think you're looking at waiting things out for quite a few years (or until Discord makes a major misstep as a company).

True, real time chat is not for everyone, but small discords with well-chosen channels can operate more asynchronously. Just like a lot of people who hated the look of Tumblr early on eventually capitulated, a lot of chat haters have jumped ship to Discord already.

Realistically, 90% of fandom always goes where the action is, no matter how much they claim the features make that space impossible, and 10% disappears.

We might get the 10% back on the next platform or they might leave fandom for good. There were LJ-haters who resurfaced post LJ era.

But as for where you'll find out where people are... probably AO3 author's notes.

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princeescaluswords · 9 months

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(contd2) And then in S4 he only trusts/remembers Scott when he's deaged, he's ready to die for him when he thinks it's inevitable, and ofc later there's his whole thing about only coming back *for Scott* and not for the town (or anybody else in it). Idk, I just find it so funny how insistent he is about his motivations and how his admiration and affection for Scott overshadow his connections with literally anybody else and people?? Don't get the memo?? HE MADE SEVERAL WHOLE SPEECHES ABOUT IT!

Hey, do you remember this scene from The Wolves of War (6x20)? I do. It is the culmination of a story that began in Wolf Moon (1x01). What started as "We're brothers now." ended in "No. Came back for you."

When that scene first aired, an individual made a gifset of the scene. Within the first twenty or so reactions, there was a reply to it. I remember it as much as I remember a splinter dug under my skin: "As a Sterek shipper, I reject this." I'm sure it's still out there somewhere. We could find it no matter how bad Tumblr's search engine is, if we put our minds to it.

Of course, several people responded to the reply with what you might expect, explanations of shock, dismay and outrage that a self-identified member of a group with the motto "Derek Hale Deserves Nice Things" would look at a scene of deep friendship between Derek and Scott and "reject" it. My response, though, was different. My first thought was "How the hell is that relevant to Sterek?"

If you take the concept of the Sterek ship at its basic principles, it's the idea that Derek and Stiles are not only sexually compatible, but uniquely positioned to enhance each other's lives and fulfill each other's emotional needs. I can fully get behind that. I think that there is definitely an aesthetic argument to be made for the pairing; it seems the fandom agrees with me.

My enormous and undying problem is that when you examine the overwhelming Sterek content created, there is an undeniable aspect to it that adds a completely unnecessary complication. For some reason, Scott hate (or at least the idea that Scott is an impediment to Sterek) is a major component of the Sterek fandom. And that just doesn't track. Derek and Scott have conflicts at the beginning, but given the situation that is unavoidable. On the other hand, as you have so carefully pointed out, they grow into a mutually beneficial friendship. How can the fact that Canon Derek and Canon Scott come to mean so much to each other interfere with Sterek? Scott and Stiles's friendship is the beating heart of the show, even as it is Scott's story, so much so that Stiles has to be mentioned repeatedly even when he's not present on the screen. How can the fact that Canon Stiles and Canon Scott love each other so much be seen as an impediment to Sterek?

My premise: it is not, and the prevalence of anti scott hatred in the Sterek fandom has nothing to do with shipping Derek and Stiles, and everything to do with racism.

Take the example above. I could see it, maybe, if Stiles had been living in Beacon Hills and standing in the background, and Derek had specifically proclaimed that he had only come back to Beacon Hills for Scott, then it would be reasonable for a Sterek shipper to have a problem with the scene. But that didn't happen. Stiles was not only no longer in Beacon Hills, he came back to Beacon Hills with Derek. There is nothing in that scene that infringes or diminishes or prevents Sterek. So why the hostility?

There's nothing in canon in any of the relationships involved -- Scott and Stiles, Stiles and Derek, Scott and Derek -- that is hostile to Sterek shipping.

It can't be because Scott said a few mean things to Derek in the early seasons. For every slightly mean thing Scott said, such as "Then they had a reason" in Magic Bullet (1x04), Stiles said two to three, such as "Oh, is that contagious? You know what, you should probably just get out." or when he tells Scott that Derek is beginning to smell like death when Derek is sitting right next to him, or "You know, that really doesn't look like anything some echinacea and a good night of sleep couldn't take care of." all three of which happened in the same episode.

It can't be because Scott resisted accepting Derek's leadership, because for every time Scott rejected Derek's guidance, Stiles undermined Derek's positions openly.

It can't be because Scott took antagonistic actions toward Derek, such as deceiving him about joining his pack to save Jackson's life in Raving (2x08) or valuing Allison's life over Derek's discomfort in Master Plan (2x12), because Stiles literally tries to convince Scott to let the Argents kill Derek to stop Peter in Formality (1x11) and for Allison to shoot Derek "preferably in the head" in Venomous (2x05) because he valued Scott's and Lydia's life over Derek.

It can't be an aversion to queerbaiting, because the show had multiple significant gay relationships. For every scene that made us question Stiles's sexuality, there was a scene which put Scott in a similar situation. Derek never had a scene like that, but even so, all three of them only pursued women romantically.

It can't be because Tyler Posey once said something negative about the ship overwhelming all other fandom activities, because both Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O'Brien said things inimical to Sterek as well.

So, there's got to be a reason that a major component of Sterek shipping, superfluous to the ship itself, is hostility to Scott McCall and his actor. Some factor that drives some participants in a ship to viciously hate the main character who is canonically not an impediment to their ship and enables the rest of participants in the ship to tacitly support it.

BUT IT'S NOT RACISM.

#scott mccall #stiles stilinski #derek hale #sciles #sterek #teen wolf fandom problems #fandom racism #scott mccall defense squad #the wolves of war #tw 6x20

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