#bookworm rants

[bookworm555]

Naruto Canon Ships Appreciation

Okay, so I will preface this by saying I’m a huge multishipper, and I have so many pairings I like from this series.

However, in the tags of many non-canon ships, there has been so much meanness and so much hate towards the canon ships and the people who ship them. (Lookin’ at you, s.ns subfandom...) 

One of the antis’ arguments has been ‘they’re all bland, boring het ships’ , so I decided to write a little (well, maybe not so little) appreciation post for the canon ships, and point out reasons why they’re not bland and boring. 

Also, another thing I want to point out is the different sorts of families being represented, here.

*EDIT: Here is a post discussing my thoughts on the ending in general, ships aside*

NaruHina: While the Sunshine Family might seem like the most ‘boring’ and ‘traditional’ one of the bunch, I disagree. As Hokage, Naruto is basically president of Konoha (to put it in American terms, haha). He has to balance his (extremely important and time-consuming) job with his family life, something that you can see causes tension in the Boruto movie. (Also, I’d like to point out that happiness =/= boring. I don’t understand why that argument is even a thing. [Like, I’ve seen people complain that because NaruHina is a fluffier pairing than some others, it’s boring. WOW, so a couple’s happiness is boring? UM])

-

SasuSaku: Okay, so SS (tied with SaiIno) is my favorite of the canon ships (if my followers couldn’t tell already, haha), yet sadly, the most misunderstood and hated. (But that’s a rant for another day.) In the SS family, Sasuke is basically a military dad. (Well, if you consider all the shinobi in Konoha to be military, then Sasuke would be part of a more elite branch/organization, like the Department of Defense or the CIA or something mixed with a combat position). Due to the nature of his missions, he’s not home often, but, as shown in Gaiden, he loves his wife and daughter. (And he is NOT a deadbeat dad. Ugh, I am so sick of that argument. [And I am really disappointed Sasuke’s English VA said that, or something similar, in his interview. That means he misinterpreted Sasuke’s character...])

-

ShikaTema: Honestly, I think this the one ship most people agree on, because it was so damn obvious it was going to happen, haha. What’s interesting about this ship is that Temari is technically an immigrant to Konoha, so imagine all the challenges that come with that.

-

ChouKarui: Similarly to Temari, Karui is also an immigrant to Konoha. But unlike Temari, she wasn’t part of Chouji’s friend group until much later on. (And for people complaining that Karui didn’t know Chouji when they were younger/wasn’t part of the original Naruto characters, so she shouldn’t have ended up with Chouji, really? As one of my good friends aptly said, do you really think that everyone will marry someone they knew from high school? Obviously not. I find it perfectly fine that Chouji dated, then married someone who he met later on in life. (Now I want to know how their relationship happened, haha.)

-

SaiIno: Oh man, as I said in the SasuSaku bit, SS and SaiIno are my favorite canon ships. (I shipped Sai and Ino back when it was considered a crack pair!!) Now, I find this ship to be the most interesting because of the heavy emotional component of it. Sai is a person who had been conditioned since he was very young to suppress his emotions, and because of that, he’s very socially stunted. Ino, on the other hand, is extremely emotional, and always has been. So I feel like they’re the perfect people for each other, and balance out really well. And while these differences would inevitably cause some disagreements, I feel like they’d also help each other grow and understand each other. (Also, for the posts saying that SaiIno ripped off SNS, HUH? Sai and Ino have nothing to do with Naruto and Sasuke, so I don’t even understand why this is used against SaiIno)

-

And these aren’t exactly ships, but...

Rock Lee, unless Metal Lee’s mother is shown (I hope it turns out to be Tenten, haha XD) is a single dad.

Gaara is also a single dad, with an adopted son. That’s also something I haven’t seen often in anime.

[a-artemis]

so i just bought ready player one by ernest cline

I GOT HOOKED BY JUST READING THE INTRODUCTION!! and now i’m on the 30+-ish something page and wow, the writing. is. GOOD. i hope this book won’t disappoint me because i expect great things coming from this book~

[justabookworm39]

Personal gripe:

IMO: the only thing worse than people who insist on ‘problematic’ ships all being horrible are the people whose BYFs include ‘don’t follow if you ship a problematic ship for non-coping (message me if you don’t know what’s problematic)’

FOR TWO REASONS!

1: This whole ‘Oh this is horrible! Oh, wait, you’re a survivor? Well, you’re cool BUT EVERYONE ELSE WHO SHIPS THIS NEEDS TO DIE!’ BS is AWFUL and makes most actual survivors *cough*includingme*cough* really uncomfortable b/c why? Is it suddenly OK?? For some people and not others??? Who even gives you to right?????? To pry into this shit?????????????????????

2: I’m... gonna give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you need ‘ask me which ships I find gross/weird/toxic and don’t enjoy’ AND NOT ‘ask me which ships are bad b/c clearly I know exactly what the worst ships are,’ but godDAMN, please try to not sound so pretentious and high-horse-y? At least try???

[justabookworm39]

I know I shouldn’t care that much that nobody’s liking/reblogging that pic I did of my FNAF AU, but I almost wonder if this is the price I pay for leaving it be for so long.

Could be that nobody’s interested in my AU/FNAF in general anymore and I’ve doomed my story by abandoning it for a while.

[justabookworm39]

Don’t you hate it when you realize that a EightTracks user you’re following has a playlist titled (to paraphrase) ‘ur kink is gross’ and, while you’re honestly sorta grossed-out by the concept of the kink in question itself, you know (especially as an abuse survivor yourself) it’s completely harmless and actually is used by survivors to cope.

Soooo you unfollow them and remove all their playlists from your collections/unlike all their playlists you liked, b/c there doesn’t seem to be a block feature which is kinda a shame.

[justabookworm39]

TFW you get sick of seeing things tagged with ‘girl power,’ feminism,’ etc. also being tagged with ‘mi$andry’ so you make a positive, cheery, awesome-songs 8Tracks mix of male vocalists/male-fronted bands and tag it with ‘boy positive’ because fuck you gross radfems

[bookworm555]

Okay, so am I the only one who’s a little disappointed in Static Shock fanfics?

Like, I love Virgil/Richie and all, but there’s so much more to the show than that, as well as much more than those two characters. (Though I know they’re the main protagonists, so it’s to be expected.)

But there are just so many amazing and interesting characters, and I barely see fics of them. (And when I do, they’re usually romance-centric, which seems a little OOC for some of them [like, say, Ebon].)

Obviously, there are some great ones I love to read, but there’s only so many times I can reread the same two or three fics.

Like, what about Adam, and his struggles with dyslexia as well as becoming a redeemed villain and a hero. Not to mention he juggles being a singer on top of that (or did he quit singing in favor of being a hero full time; I forgot), AND he’s in a happy relationship with Sharon. This dude is an amazing character! Oh yeah, and then there’s the whole conflict between him and his brother, which would make for some amazing angst fics.

And speaking of Ebon, holy hell was he an interesting villain. It would be cool to see some fics centered on him, and his motivations. Not to mention there’s his whole backstory about trying to protect Adam once their dad left. 

Going along with him, the whole Metabreed in general are super cool characters! What about Talon/Teresa, who just wanted to be normal, but was stuck with the form of a literal monster? Or Shiv, who had such a hilarious personality that he stole the show whenever he was in a scene. (And I headcanon him having a really angsty backstory since not much is known about him, but that’s a whole ‘nother story, haha.) Even Ferret, Carmendillo, and Kangorr were interesting in their own way.

And oh man, then there’s Hotstreak/Francis. Like, obviously, he’s shown to be a huge douchebag, but as the show went on, he even got some character development (see: No Man’s Island). Though it all went to shit in the last episode, and I ignore that, XD It’s shown that he has a phobia of hospitals, since he was in one for a long time when he was younger (it was never explained why, though; I’m guessing cancer or some other serious disease?). And then he actually helped Static save Edwin Alva Jr., which was interesting, too. Like, there’s a goldmine of material to explore with his character, but I mostly see him appear in fics where he’s shipped with either Virgil or Richie, or just the antagonist of the week. And how could I forget to mention his relationship with Aquamaria?

Speaking of Aquamaria, what about her? I know a lot of people disliked the ship between her and Hotstreak, but it was really interesting, at least to me.

And on the subject of female characters, She-Bang. Back in the day, I know people didn’t like her, but I always thought she was an interesting character. I mean, come on, an artificially-made human who loves her powers and wants to be a superhero? That’s awesome! It was cool to see her team up with Virgil and Richie, too.

What rant would this be without mentioning the Nightbreed? They were some of the most interesting characters in the show! (Especially Nightingale and Brickhouse. Like, damn, they were such memorable characters!)

And then there’s Madelyn Spaulding. She was the villain you loved to hate; it would be cool to read about her, too.

Hell, even Puff and Onyx (the bounty hunters) would be interesting to read about.

And I know they only appeared in one episode, but Derek Barnett and Allie Langford were interesting, too, and it would be cool to explore what happened to them.

And what about Sharon, Robert, Daisy, and Frieda? They might not have superpowers, but they’re still interesting characters that can hold their own in fics.

I know this was long, but I’m just getting frustrated because this show had an amazing world, and amazing characters, yet the majority of fics I see focus on just VR slash. 

[yellingintothelegalvoid]

As a self-proclaimed bookworm, I get very distressed over seeing hipsters "upcycling" books for various arts and crafts projects. Oh you want to make an original planter box? And you thought carving into a 40 year old book was the answer? Oh, or maybe you wanted to make an original photo album/scrapbook that involves PAINTING OVER the pages of that 1940s hardback book you found at an antiques store? Because regular photo books aren't enough for you?!?! No. Stop that right now. Books are meant to be treasured, read, and displayed in a respectful manner. They're meant to be cradled in your hands as you wipe dust off of them. Go buy a blank book for all your hipster needs. They make journals and planter boxes and scrapbooks for this reason. Unless it's twilight. Then go nuts.