a blog for gay anime ships

unfortunately, a lot if not all of these ships are going to be simple queerbaiter ships but thems the works - i'll try to tag spoilers but this blog as a whole is not spoiler free, sorry

[metalpoint]

BORN IN A GRAVEYARD RAISED BY A WITCH

HALF MOTHERFUCKER HALF SON OF A BITCH

(insp<3)

[ao3commentoftheday]

Somewhere in my notes in the last few days I saw someone add some tags that I’ve been thinking about ever since. I wish I could find them again (or that I’d just saved their post at the time) because I think they made a lot of sense.

They were talking about how fanfic is becoming more and more mainstream while still remaining largely transgressive. It’s such an interesting dichotomy to think about!

On the one hand, you have sites like AO3 and realities like widespread high speed internet access being more and more accessible to larger and larger groups of people. This makes it incredibly easy for anyone at all to find and read fanfic.

On the other hand, you have the roots of fanfic. It was born out of marginalized groups such as women, people of colour, and members of the queer community deciding to take the stories that had been aimed at a largely male, white, heterosexual audience and inverting them into something they could enjoy and relate to. To this day, fanfic is a place where people write the kinds of stories that don’t get made into movies and TV shows. The kinds of stories that don’t get published or end up on the New York Times bestseller list.

Fanfic used to be written and shared in secret. People used to hide it. People still do hide the fact that they read or write it. But it’s becoming something that more and more people are becoming more and more aware of.

So now there’s a spotlight starting to shine on fanfic. People who aren’t looking for transgressive works are finding them where they always were. People who think the status quo is fine are getting upset when they enter a place where the status quo is constantly being upended.

The tags on that post that I can’t find made the point that popular media is curated and sanitized and stripped of most of its controversy in order to appeal to the widest possible audience. But that also makes that audience expect all media to be curated and sanitized in the same way. When they encounter the messy, controversial, ugly, radical, difficult things that people write in fanfic, they’re unprepared.

Fanfic isn’t big media. Fanfic authors aren’t being edited and filtered and polished - and nor are their works. The clash between the expectations of people new to fanfic and accustomed to popular media and the realities of what fanfic is and what it’s being written for - that’s part of this struggle that fandom is going through right now. It’s been going on since the beginning of course, but it’s getting louder every year.

I’m still thinking my way through this, but it really does make a lot of sense to me. If those were your tags, please let me know so I can credit you with the ideas at the core of this post.

And if you have any ideas for how we as fans can better introduce the newbies to the culture and expectations in fandom, I’d love to hear it. The better we can guide people into our space, the better they’ll fit in when they join it.

[sparkylurkdragon]

While I’m not entirely sure how, here are a few what ideas. If you’re coming into fanfic new, here is what you need to know. Perhaps other folks can think of more diplomatic ways to frame these thoughts.

Fandom has historically been dominated by the weird. Weird people, weird stories. That isn’t a bad thing. A lot of folks in fandom wear weird as a badge of honour, something we reclaimed from bullies and other abusers who slung the word and related ones at us. We are not normal and do not seek to be normal. If that idea bothers you, you are still welcome, but know that you are a guest. A lot of folks in fandom have been burned by aggressive normalcy, and start baring teeth when it intrudes into our spaces.

The author is dead. All this means is that the original canon author or authors can tell you their interpretation of the story, but they cannot control your own interpretations or imagination: their interpretation is no more or less important than anyone else’s. Something being noncompliant with canon does not make it badly-written.

Alternate universes exist. If someone wants to write characters from a serious crime drama in a sitcom, they are allowed to do that. If someone wants to explore what would happen if that horrific mass murderer was redeemed or never evil, they are allowed to do that. If someone just really likes dragons and wants to write about everyone being a dragon, they are allowed to do that.

If you write fanfic, you are also an author, so you are also dead. Once you release your ideas into the wild, other people can and will do weird things with them. The sooner you accept that, the better.

You will find porn of it if you go looking. If you don’t, some folks will take that as a challenge and go make some. As long as good-faith efforts are made to keep out people who shouldn’t or don’t want to see it, there is nothing wrong with this.

A canon being made for kids and teens does not mean that all sections of the fandom are for kids and teens. Adults can be into works for the younger set, and as long as there are clear boundaries between work that’s appropriate for kids and work that isn’t, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, and absolutely nothing wrong with adult or dark works based on those stories.

Some people will really hate your favourite characters. Some people will think your favourite pairing is gross, or boring, or that the characters would be better off with someone else. Some people will think that show or game or book that got you through the roughest moments of your life is absolute trash. And that’s okay. Not everyone has to like your favourite things.

Someone writing dark stories about terrible things happening to your favourite characters, even dark stories that may mirror some trauma you’ve been through, are not writing about you. They’re not. It is none of your business why they’re writing it. Their only duty to you is to make sure you can avoid their work if you want to. Again, the sooner you accept this, the better off you’ll be.

It’s okay if you want to write something dark and depraved. Lots of people do, and if it’s weird, well, fandom has historically been dominated by the weird.

It’s okay if you want to write nothing but fluff.

It’s okay, no matter what you want to write.

Just be courteous and tag your work. Even if all you want to tag it with is “this may contain dark topics.”

Welcome.

[jemariel]

This feels related to a post I saw a while back about how so much of fandom is rooted in neuro divergence. The hyper fixation, the “squeeing”, the encyclopedic knowledge. And how, as fandom gets more and more mainstream, those hallmarks of being a Fan get tagged as *cringey*

Idk. Makes you think.

[olderthannetfic]

I love almost every point here, but if there’s one thing I would tell new fans, it’s this:

Most fanfic is straight.

These are the best hard numbers I have (with multi/other including all fics labeled as more than one of m/m, f/m, and f/f along with ones labeled as multi/other):

AO3 is the gay porn bookstore, so AO3 is the site that cares about:

Being free from corporate overlords

Not monetizing your data in creepy ways

Minute and detailed kink labeling

Protecting the freaky content

If you hate Bad Kinks, that’s fine. Just know that you will never get the kind of labeling AO3 has from the people who pander to the mainstream. If you want to get rid of The Bad Stuff, the kind of websites you’ll end up with are a sea of nigh unsearchable het, like Wattpad. And the same kinks will be there. They just won’t be labeled clearly.

People imagine that fandom is mostly queer because their own bubble is, because queer stuff sticks in their mind more as anomalous, making it seem more frequent than it really is, and because the only places that label clearly are the queer ones.

If you want to tear down the places with queer+freaky content, you will end up tearing down the only places that protect queer content at all.

[olderthannetfic]

No, literally no one missed that. For you, the big thing is underage. For someone else, it’s RPF existing at all. For someone else, it’s rape-as-kink.

I reiterate: If you hate Bad Kinks, that’s fine. But AO3 looks how it does because it’s opposed to censorship. A site less opposed to censorship would also be less into this type of metadata and would have less clear labeling.

Perhaps Wattpad’s terms of service would be more to your taste.

[hjbender]

Perhaps Wattpad’s terms of service would be more to your taste.

The politest way to tell somebody to go to hell has been found

[c-rowlesblogs]

I’ve been seeing just. The wildest takes about AO3 this donation cycle and I’m at my limit. I just saw a post claiming that AO3 isn’t a real archive, that it’s a scam, because there’s no quality control like a real, legitimate archive would have, that they just let in any old trash. And that this makes AO3 not worthy of anyone’s money or respect.

And you know what? It’s true! AO3 does let in any old trash! People can just post whatever the hell they want. And you know what? An ad-free, free-to-use website where people writing fanfiction, in their free time for no money, can upload their work with no hassle or exclusive vetting process, that also happens to be a highly popular and well-known fanfic repository for every fandom under the sun? WITH a robust and well-curated tagging system, too? That’s the dream. I’m glad they let anyone upload whatever weird trash they want. GOOD.

[lemonsharks]

Libraries–legit brick and mortar libraries around the world are in awe of AO3’s curation. AO3 is lightning in a bottle and these turds want to burn it to the ground because they won’t read a freakin tag block? Because they choose to consume material that “makes them uncomfy” when the contents of that material are laid out in big step away anyone with the good sense god gave a bedbug to assess and move on from?

Listen up kiddos, a lack of self control on your part does not constituent a crisis of morality on mine.

Figure out how the fuck to not look at things that upset you and get on with your life.

[naryrising]

I’d add that, as with any archive, AO3 can and does remove things that are not within its mandate to host. Those include: commercial promotion, non-transformative works (someone’s economics homework, the entire text of The Great Gatsby, plagiarized fics), spam, ephemeral content (e.g. fic finding posts, update plans, reaction posts), and illegal-in-the-US content. The rest of it?As long as it’s a fanwork, our mission is to preserve. It doesn’t matter if you think it’s unimportant, doesn’t have artistic merit, is offensive or in poor taste or badly written. As an actual professional archivist for about as long as I’ve been an AO3 volunteer, that’s the “quality control” that we engage in.

[nannyfeline]

speaking to what @lemonsharks said, I am an actual librarian who works in an actual library that I am inside of right now, and yes, I am in awe of ao3 (and really any online archive with a mandate to host content in perpetuity).

some people need to hear that a librarian approves of the trashy stuff, too, so here you go. you porn is LIBRARIAN APPROVED. even the shitty stuff that’s really poorly written.

[majorenglishesquire]

Reminder: There is no reason to engage with the conservatives on these posts by replying to them and boosting their voices. Please block them outright.

This is just like any other current-day social or political debate:

People aren’t misunderstanding that the pixels that make up words on a fic post cannot constitute an illegal sexual act–it’s convenient for them to deny this.

People aren’t misunderstanding that “chose not to use warnings” is a warning tag in and of itself–it’s convenient for them to be victimized by something they chose to click on.

People are not misunderstanding censorship issues and fandom history–it is convenient for them to insist that these have no bearing on their arguments.

When you see conservatives and pro-censorship people railing against AO3, block them. They have no place in fandom spaces.

Let them go back to FF.net and Wattpad. Let them create and curate their own archives. They are clearly illustrating that they don’t respect our spaces and we are under no obligation to engage with them, ‘coax them into the light,’ reason with them or whatever. They’re not here to be folded into our communities and guided into acceptance. They are here to have the entire fandom experience exclusively catered to themselves. By definition, they’re here for themselves, not our community.

[alectoperdita]

Ramblings about writing (namely Side Deck) under the cut

Seguir leyendo

[red-eyes-blue-eyes]

You didn’t ask for my opinion, and as such you can tell me to fuck off. I won’t blame you for it.

Keep reading

[alectoperdita]

@red-eyes-blue-eyes

Thank you for your long, thoughtful post in response to my anxious word vomiting. You’re most certainly not a dumb-dumb given how you spoke so nuanced. In fact, I’m a little alarmed at how well you’ve hit some of my unvoiced worries so head-on. Not because you’re intrusive or anything like that, but the fact that you could name the structural issues so clearly means that my concerns are not unfounded.

[aizenmyoo]

okay, I might also be somewhat at fault for being intrusive. and I'm gonna be really really honest here.

side deck is the fic that got me into puppyshipping and it's the first LONG puppyshipping fic I'd read. that being said, the last chapter was just.. okay! that being SAID, it's not a deal breaker for the whole thing and I think I'd cry if you deleted it entirely.

side deck is actually the first LONG fic I've finished reading in years, period. I'm quick to drop fics and things if I've lost interest or it's offended me in some way. I'm PICKY. when I first started side deck I misread the word count as 14k and I was like of this'll be quick! it wasn't until chapter 10 that I realized it was 140k. OOPS! ..... but that's how quickly I zoomed thru that thing. didn't even realize it wasn't 14k because i was too busy enjoying it. I finished side deck and then I immediately read the other oneshots from the universe.

even if chapter 12 wasn't my favorite chapter. your work is worth reading!! you are a talented writer and I have faith in your writing. I am begging you to keep trying!! I am very interested in reading other things that you post!

I hope this doesn't come off as rude or pushy, but I think it'd be more rude to sugar coat it and LIE to you when you already know something's not quite right. maybe I'm not as articulate as red-eyes-blue-eyes, but I hope you read this as encouragement and not slander!!!

actually, after I finished side deck, I started reading another puppyshipping longfic and dropped it... halfway through the last chapter.. because I got fed up with it. please believe me when i say side deck is good!

[notimnotatop]

consent is actually so hot. yes it’s necessary, but also?? someone asking “want me to do that to you?” “is this okay?” “do you wanna do that for me?” has such a soft safe feeling and it makes me want them more

[aizenmyoo]

it really fucking sucks how hard it is to avoid sexual abuse in BL manga.... I check literally every single title I read now bc of how many times I've picked up something that looks like a cute comedy only to get HURT later on. and even then it's still not easy to dodge!! I can tell that this one that I just dropped wasn't tagged as sexual abuse bc he actually liked the guy and there wasn't any insertion. guess what!!!! that literally doesn't matter!!! it's still abuse!!! if somebody asks to stop and they don't stop that's fucking r*pe!!! God I don't want to see it

I really enjoy reading the good ones but after reading so many bad ones I'm starting to wonder if the struggle is worth it....

[aizenmyoo]

me, after going out of my way to MAKE SURE a BL isn't nasty, BUT IT IS ANYWAYS:

[aizenmyoo]

it really fucking sucks how hard it is to avoid sexual abuse in BL manga.... I check literally every single title I read now bc of how many times I've picked up something that looks like a cute comedy only to get HURT later on. and even then it's still not easy to dodge!! I can tell that this one that I just dropped wasn't tagged as sexual abuse bc he actually liked the guy and there wasn't any insertion. guess what!!!! that literally doesn't matter!!! it's still abuse!!! if somebody asks to stop and they don't stop that's fucking r*pe!!! God I don't want to see it

I really enjoy reading the good ones but after reading so many bad ones I'm starting to wonder if the struggle is worth it....

[alexxmichael]

you know when someone writes a fic and it’s just SO GOOD and you’re wondering how they came up with the idea because it literally ignites your soul and is everything you wanted in a fic aND MORE and you just sigh to yourself because people are fucking fantastic ok

[ao3commentoftheday]

Things you can do if reading/writing fic isn’t happening right now but you still want to be engaging in/with fandom (an incomplete list):

go through your bookmarks and add the title of the fic to the comments section - that way if it’s ever deleted, you’ll know which fic it was

go through your bookmarks and add commentary or tags - keep in mind that bookmarks default to public, so make sure you tick off the private checkbox if you don’t want the author or anyone else to potentially see it

look up your fandom/ship/fave character on Fanlore. Get an account and add examples of fanart or fanfic to their page

create a page for a fandom or a ship or a character that doesn’t exist on Fanlore yet. You don’t have to build it out all by yourself, but if you start it then others might add on!

if you have the money to spare, consider commissioning a fan artist or fic writer

share fic recs on your blog

reblog fanart

use a free tool like Canva to create a moodboard or a banner

find a fanvid on youtube and give it a thumbs up and a comment

fill out your AO3 profile

build out your personal page on Fanlore

do a follow forever post or a follower appreciation post

send people ask memes or post them yourself

ask an author for permission to record one of their stories as a podfic - and if you can’t contact them directly, check their profile for a permission statement or look them up on the Fanworks Permission Statements List

Create and share a playlist for your fave episode/ship/fic/character

cook a meal inspired by your fave canon

And of course, if the items on this list are too much for you right now, then give yourself a hug and know that that’s okay. It’s a stressful time, and doing anything extra can be a daunting idea. Don’t pressure yourself into keeping busy because you think you need to be productive. Don’t feel guilty if you can’t manage to do anything extra. 

This list is for people who need to keep busy and keep their minds occupied as a way to cope. If your way of coping is different, then do what works for you. ❤

[aizenmyoo]

hanahaki disease is my favorite fanfic trope, but it makes me frustrated how many authors write in the remove-it-by-surgery part. it breaks down everything interesting about it. death is the only option and there’s nothing anyone can do about it? sexy and tragic.. you CAN be cured and you’re choosing to NOT be cured? immature. kind of manipulative. way too co-dependent.

[aizenmyoo]

I seriously think about this constantly bc I love the concept of hanahaki so much but every single hanahaki fic I read that has the remove-it-by-surgery part has to come up with some contrived excuse why they CAN'T just remove it. like. just don't use it!! you don't have to!!

unless the character you're writing about DOES try to remove the hanahaki entirely, just don't include it!!

[aizenmyoo]

(source)

i saw this on my dash the other day and i’ve been thinking about it since...

okay so. Favorite, S, and A tiers are all tropes where if your fic has them, i am very likely to read it. B and C: i can enjoy these if they’re done well. D and F: i can TOLERATE if it’s done well, but will 98% just. not read it. Never means never. lol

other fics types i like that’d rank very highly are hanahaki disease and detective/criminal aus. ^^ i think those also kind of go hand-in-hand with enemies to lovers and hurt/comfort though.

another fic type that’d rank into Never is self-insert/xreader.

[aizenmyoo]

Hai my otp is from sally face idk if you know it but it’s Larry x sal

bro to be honest I've never even heard of this before, but I went through the tag a bit and I am VERY INTERESTED. thanks so much for bringing this to my attention..... 👀 Sal is cute

[cywscross]

From @lightveils on Twitter (free to use wherever!). I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. I definitely have enough fics to fill it lol~

Keep reading

[aizenmyoo]

hanahaki disease is my favorite fanfic trope, but it makes me frustrated how many authors write in the remove-it-by-surgery part. it breaks down everything interesting about it. death is the only option and there’s nothing anyone can do about it? sexy and tragic.. you CAN be cured and you’re choosing to NOT be cured? immature. kind of manipulative. way too co-dependent.

[rpfunstuff]

Leave a ship in my ask and I'll reply only with an emoji

😍 - otp 🙂 - I ship it but it’s not on my otp list 😐 - I don’t ship it but it’s not on my notp list 😡 - notp

[aizenmyoo]

okay so we all know that shinichi can’t sing, and that kaito is similar but also opposite to shinichi. in addition to the fact that shinichi has to use a voice changing device to sound different, and kaito can just do it himself (implying that he’s talented with his voice) i think it’s a very fair headcanon that kaito can sing VERY WELL!! it’s kind of a shame i don’t ever see that in fics! it’d be really great!

[persianflaw]

i literally cannot comprehend the people who act like shipping is some kind of crusade or moral obligation. like if you ask them why they ship something they say “oh it’s groundbreaking representation” or some shit instead of talking about how they like the way the characters interact. obviously representation is important but nobody is going to give you a medal for only shipping wholesome healthy all-natural 100% organic gmo-free pure pairings, you’re allowed to just…have fun. sometimes you just want two characters to kiss. you’re not a bad person for not writing a thousand-page thesis mathematically proving that your otp will end oppression across the globe