Reversatility

Fated for femslash and fandom (I try to avoid spoilers, so if I disappear from tumblr every so often, that's probably why!)

[badwolf-timeandspace]

Warrior Nun Fandom, especially fanfic writers, please read this!

Unfortunately, it seems like the person who has harassed the clexa fandom as an anonymous troll for years has moved on to your fandom.

Here are examples of the comments they've left on avatrice fics so far:

And while those seem harmless and friendly enough, it's easy to see the demanding and entitled nature behind them.

Their whole thing is that they want to control what you write. They want the story to go exactly the way they want. And they WILL lash out if it doesn't.

These are only few of the comments they left on clexa fics:

(tw transphobia, slurs)

It's beside the point, but I want to say that none of the fics that received those comments were fics that contained rape or sex scenes between Lexa (or Clarke) and someone else, and the only "dick Lexa is taking" is Clarke's.

How long though, until comments like these will appear on fics where Ava is a single mother (/has a child with JC or Michael) for example? Or Bea is in a relationship with Lilith at first? Or just anything that triggers this troll's anger (- which really can be anything, in case you thought this doesn't affect you because you're not writing or reading A/B/O or smut)?

This person relentlessly harassed clexa writers over at least the last 2 years and has even left comments with death threats. And all just because they didn't like how the stories went.

I want the Avatrice Fandom to be aware of this, so you can protect yourself.

This person comments anonymously, and while for now they seem to use "Apu" as their guest name, they'll probably switch it up eventually. You will be able to spot them anyway by the way they write and by what they are saying. Read the comments above closely and I'm sure you'll notice a pattern.

So, what can you do about this? This is up to you of course, but if you want some advice, here's mine...

As long as their comments stay relatively polite, just ignore them. And with that I don't only mean don't reply to them, I also mean, don't let them get into your head and don't let them dictate how to write your story or when to update, etc.

You can give them a short (friendly) answer too, but remind yourself that you don't owe them (or anyone for that matter) anything. You're offering your writing for free, it's your story, write it the way you want.

If their comments get nasty, don't interact with them and report them to the abuse team. I know the abuse team will only tell you that they can't do anything against anonymous comments/harassment. The thing is though they already know the ao3 account of the clexa troll, and they suspended this account for some limited time. So, if they can connect hate comments to an ao3 account, trolls will face consequences. (Though, admittedly, in case of the clexa troll, it took them exposing themselves.)

If I'm wrong about this, and "Apu" isn't the clexa troll, my advice to writers on how to handle comments like these still stands. No one gets to make demands to fic writers. And leaving comments like this is wrong, no matter who they are from.

Dear fic writers, I know you appreciate it that people read your fics and like them and leave comments. And being polite and friendly is your default reaction.

But in case you need to hear this, you're allowed to tell someone when their comment is out of line. You're allowed to not be nice to people who are not nice to you. You're allowed to tell asshole trolls to fuck off.

To the readers, please, continue to let the writers know if you like their stories. And if you don't like a story or started reading it but don't like where it's going, please, just stop reading.

Fandom is a community and no matter if you're a writer or reader or both, we only strive if we treat each other with respect and kindness. Look out for each other. Don't let a few bad actors destroy our/your fandom. (You might think I'm exaggerating, but the number of writers this one troll chased away from clexa fandom and the number of fics that were abandoned or deleted because of them is tragically high.)

Please, spread the word! Reblog this, talk in your fandom's discords about it! Thank you!

[winterlorn]

Another interesting ideological contrast between Ava’s view of life and catholicism is that the christian view of an all-knowing, omnipotent God inhabiting an eternal realm stems from a desire for perfection. God is everything humans are not, he’s perfect, he’s eternal, he’s beyond reproach. The appeal to heaven and hell as an afterlife is the appeal of perfect justice, which often seems so distant on earth. The appeal of eternal life stems from the idea that mortality is a flaw somehow, imperfect, and eternity is better.

After Darwin, the same philosophy popped up in the scientific sphere (two sides of the same coin indeed!) with social darwinism and eugenics, the idea that some species are more or less evolved than others and, in an interpretation of evolution which does not rhyme at all with what Darwin actually said, implying that there is some sort of endpoint to evolution, that there’s a teleology, a point where the perfect species will have been achieved and nothing more needs to change.

The problem with this, of course, is that it’s a faulty view of evolution which denies the one universal constant, which is change. Heaven and God as an idea, as much as as the ideal of the perfectly adjusted species, are static, dead, unchanging by nature. Which makes sense, because once you achieve perfection, nothing more can change. You’re locked into exactly what you are because if you change anything, you’re no longer perfect. It’s a dead, sterile form of being. Additionally, the faulty view of evolution is that what evolution really is, is a species adjusting over generations to a changing environment. Eugenics assumes that either the environment is static, or that some universal traits might be acquired which are adaptive in all environments (whereas, with most biological traits, adaptations which are adaptive in one environment may well be maladaptive in others, and a changing environment means that, you guessed it, evolution will always be necessary because adaptation to a different environment will always be needed).

This means that humanity’s best feature is the fact that it can adapt. But adaptation is always a matter of trial and error, and the fact that your environment keeps changing means that there’s never a complete map, never a perfect blueprint, to which to apply a preplanned perfectly adjusted set of behaviors. It means humanity’s changeability naturally implies imperfection, because only imperfection allows for adaptation (perfection does not). It means that Beatrice, who strives so hard to be “perfect” according to an arbitrary religious behavioral standard, will never get to the point of perfection. It’s a futile endeavor to begin with, and moreover achieving perfection (even if possible) cannot, can never, bring you happiness. And Ava sees this. Ava sees Beatrice’s imperfections as what make her beautiful, and she tells her so. It means that what makes Avatrice as a pairing so beautiful is not that they get it right the first time, but that they learn from their mistakes and try again.

Beatrice’s struggle stemmed from the idea that imperfection is ugly and perfection is beautiful the way the perfect, all-knowing all-powerful christian God is beautiful. Ava turned this on its head: perfection is empty and sterile and imperfection is beautiful, and it is, in fact, the only mode of existence which is sustainable. Humans (and all living creatures) are adaptable, which means they are flawed. But that makes us beautiful, not ugly. It makes us alive.

[reversatility1]

[roaren452]

Season 1 Beatrice, unamused and telling Ava she went “Too far” VS Season 2 Beatrice, smiling and completely in love with everything about Ava

[winterlorn]

Been thinking about how, in spite of Beatrice’s best efforts, she never actually manages to save Ava in S2 (as opposed to several moments in S1, when Ava is still struggling to take up her role as the warrior nun). Not in the fight in the alleyway (where they were both fighting equally), not at the Prado, not at the Church (in fact Bea is the one in need of help then, with Ava being the one to get them both out of there). Not at the hotel, and not even at the very end, when Beatrice arrives just in time to see Ava detonate the bomb, but not in time to stop it. “They’re never yours, and they never last” is indeed Beatrice’s struggle in season 2, because she can only ever help Ava indirectly, by training her to become a better fighter, and by simply being by her side. But Beatrice cannot save her, from others or herself. Because Ava was never hers to save. Only hers to love.

[warriornunmysteries]

Ouch. But also, I think this is part of what makes their relationship so unusual among TV romances and so refreshing to watch. Often times couples in shows and movies are able to swoop in and save one another when there’s trouble or danger, but real life isn’t like that.

In real life it’s very unusual for people to be able to sweep in and fix problems that are plaguing their partner. That’s just how the world works. And the best people can generally do is be supportive, kind, do their best to help in the ways that they can, and let their partner know that they’re not alone. And that’s what Beatrice does for Ava.

[reversatility1]

Real-life Warrior Nuns!

Okay, not quite *warrior* nuns, and not Catholic, but a sect of Buddhist nuns who also train in martial arts, which is super interesting. (Also, in my headcanon now, Beatrice has either encountered them before, or goes to find them in some AU where Ava takes longer to return to our realm ...)

[xkatebishop]

beatrice + never letting go

[reversatility1]

Kristina Tonteri-Young doing a table read of that scene on Twitter

Ah, KTY reading the bonus bedroom scene with a fan in the Twitter space is feeding the fandom!

[winterlorn]

Haunted by the idea that some part of Beatrice was always expecting Ava to leave. She left the first time, after Beatrice tried so hard (but she was all but the only one) to make her feel welcomed, and then Beatrice had driven away from her as Ava stood on that bridge, unmoving. Mary believed Ava would come back, but Beatrice didn’t. And when Beatrice swears to never leave Ava, she never completely believes Ava would do the same for her. At the Vatican, she brings additional explosives in case Ava chickens out. When they’re in Switzerland, Beatrice seems to believe that Ava would leave her for Miguel. At the Prado? That’s the moment she didn’t expect, and so she hunts Ava down, methodically, tirelessly. When Ava falls outside the hotel, Beatrice begs her, prays to her, “please don’t leave me.” It’s a moment of realization: of knowing that while she expects Ava to leave, she realizes how deeply, deeply she doesn’t want her to. Not too much later, Beatrice even tells Ava to go, and declines her when Ava asks her to come with, so that this sword of damocles hanging over her head might finally fall and she might have peace. So when Ava leaves her in Adriel’s cathedral, Beatrice is not surprised: she’d known Ava was planning something. She knew warrior nuns had a temporary lease on life. She saw what happened between Shannon and Mary. She was prepared for this to happen. One might even say she formed her entire relationship with Ava carrying the knowledge that Ava would leave her. But then it happened and she was not prepared. And though she knew Ava would leave, and she’d always been willing to let go graciously, this time she did not want to. This time, she wanted to hold on. It was a particular type of cruel that the only thing that could save Ava required Beatrice to let her go (in fact Beatrice shakes her head when Ava asks her to). But she tells Ava “be free”, and then Ava tells her “I love you”, and this time Beatrice lets go knowing Ava wants to, intends to come back. That in a love so tinged with leaving, they might yet find a place to stay.

[winterlorn]

You know we tend to praise Alba’s acting, rightfully so, but it’s also true that Ava was a character that it was easy to show off your acting chops with because she wears her heart on her sleeve. All of those feelings are supposed to show on Alba’s face, and if you’re a good actor you can layer a ton of emotion into that. And she does. Beatrice is a very different character, though, because she plays all her feelings close to the chest; you’re not supposed to see too much of them, so for the most part, Kristina’s performance is much more subdued. Which is perfect because that’s who Beatrice is! But then there’s moments where she just can’t stop it, when the stress explodes outward or the fear is too strong or she just can’t stop the love from showing. Just look at this moment. She’s trying to smile but it’s a smile choked on tears. There’s anguish. There’s stubborness, there’s tenderness, there’s loss. There’s love. There’s something about looking at Ava that makes Beatrice’s face blossom, or break. And she’s still never going to be wearing her heart on her sleeve; that’s not who she is. But it’s these moments when there’s just too much for Beatrice to push down, added to a willingness to actually show herself with Ava, where you really see Kristina’s range, and it’s pretty damn impressive.

[winterlorn]

From Warrior Nun to Three Women, TV shows are being cancelled. Yet somehow Emily in Paris lives on | Rebecca Nicholson

There is no room for sentimentality in the ruthless world of TV streaming. If only services felt the same about quality control, says Guardian columnist Rebecca Nicholson

Not gonna lie I am lowkey proud that the #SaveWarriorNun campaign was mentioned in The Guardian; had not expected to ever get that far…

In December, fans of the Netflix fantasy series Warrior Nun learned that their favourite show had been cancelled after just two seasons. They did not take the news quietly. Billboards appeared in New York and London, sporting the slogan #SaveWarriorNun. Another, in Los Angeles, now faces Netflix HQ. This highly organised fan campaign has raised thousands of dollars in order to fund protests against the show being axed, and a petition calling for Warrior Nun to get a third season now has well over 100,000 signatures.

[emylilas]

“I wish I… I didn’t understand…”

Better in HD and with headphones!

[sisterdivinium]

Another thing (among many) that Warrior Nun gets absolutely right is its cast full of women and how they're treated throughout.

By gifting us with a diverse selection of female characters, each with their own backgrounds, looks, desires, virtues, flaws, we are treated to a wonderful mosaic of what women can be and effectively are. Proud, scared, selfish, hurt, strong, vulnerable, cunning, selfless, determined, evil, good... Each one of them can be individually and duly explored without making it look like a comment on some ideal sort of "Woman", without slipping into stereotype and the usual dullness that many other narratives reserve for their female characters.

By having (many) more than only a single interesting, well-rounded woman, by allowing each of them to be complex and human rather than just a prop for some man or eye candy for a male audience, the world of WN seems to us a lot more like something we can recognise, something truthful, unlike many other stories we've seen before — and that is one hell of a breath of fresh air.

[winterlorn]

Listen you can’t appreciate how stricken Ava seems by the news that they’re leaving for Madrid without first establishing the fact that she thinks it’s a crappy apartment. If she loved it from the get-go, the fact that she later asks Beatrice to go back to the Alps doesn’t hit quite as hard because you know she’s not nostalgic about the apartment. It’s that the apartment has become a home in spite of it being crappy. It’s setup and payoff, very basic writing shit. You can’t have payoff without the setup, and this scene was a setup scene, making the payoff sweeter. I agree it wasn’t an essential scene, but it would definitely have added some spice to later scenes.

[reversatility1]

And the *yearning* on Ava’s face when she asks ...

[strangertwistoffate]

Knowing from the bedroom scene script that Ava did stay out too late the night before just adds to the impact of this scene imo. When Ava says she’s tired, Beatrice says she can cut her hours at the bar. She doesn’t scold Ava for being out late. Instead she lets her vent and explain what she’s feeling.

Beatrice’s frustration only comes out later in this scene. The “you do what you want”. She’s been trying to let Ava live her own life too even though the reason for them being there is to train and probably feels like it’s also her fault they were compromised because of it.

[caliphoria17]

SimonDavisBarry: Ok folks, here’s the infamous scene 18 that we never shot. Comes before the running over water scene.

[reversatility1]

All these great tags, people!

@ginjointsintheworld:

@random-french-girl:

[halobearerhavoc]

is beatrice exhausted by ava's cursing because she's uptight and religious or because controlling her own language is something she worked hard to master, and language is just an extension of internal thought, and if beatrice loses control of her language then she loses control of her thoughts and she cannot afford to lose any more of her self-discipline that she's worked so hard to fortify like a wall around what comes naturally. there's danger still in changing

especially when ava sleeps beside her every night and she could so easily let the language of her mind slip into another life if they simply stayed this way for another few weeks, days, minutes, and suddenly she's catching herself thinking words like "partner" and "love" and "future." a single drop of water can destroy a stone, and the more ava corrodes her habits, the more she can imagine herself from outside the walls, a fire that requires oxygen and wants out

so she asks ava to watch her language because beatrice isn't made of stone. and she says the words herself because deep inside, ava has already begun her journey to the heart of the walls that she built to hide that fire burning. she knows the power of words, and it's why she can't speak her heart until she has set ava free. if beatrice's final wall fell, she would engulf her

[caliphoria17]

SimonDavisBarry: Ok folks, here’s the infamous scene 18 that we never shot. Comes before the running over water scene.

[reversatility1]

Yes, I just posted my own version of this, but I love the tags from @rcarx​ here!