everything is blue

[image desc: a digital illustration of rose and kanaya. rose is on the left: she is a short black woman with curly, light purple hair. she’s floating in the air with one hand on kanaya’s wrist and the other on the back of her neck, bringing their faces close together. kanaya is on the right: her skin is white, she has short black hair and horns, and she is standing with her face turned away.]

guys.

shipping absolutely Does Not mean demanding anything from people/creators. shipping isn’t about expecting and waiting for the day it will certainly happen. it is not a direct translation to Happen Or Die.

shipping means you like the idea of two (or more) people together. you like the concept. you find it fun to imagine the dynamics. you even create fanon content of it (fic, art, edits). it’s all in your head and it’s Fine that way.

is it nice to have a ship become canon? oh my god, yes. but that’s not what shipping is about and yall need to take a step back and breathe because being a jerk to people aint gonna change their mind about ships.

When people get called racist or homophobic for not supporting a ship or for supporting the wrong ship.

You need to chill. You need to accept not everyone will agree with you. It is not racist not to ship Rey and Finn. It is not homophobic not to ship Finn and Poe. (I actually have been called racist for preferring Finn/Rose. Sigh).

Shipping is a form of analysis and a keystone for transformative works. It is a way to explore romantic (and sometimes platonic, because platonic shipping is absolutely a thing. I platonic-ship Peter Parker and Shuri) relationships.

Is it frustrating when your ship doesn’t become canon? Yes.

Is it frustrating when the canon relationship is something that annoys you to the point where you anti-ship it? Hell, yes.

But the creators are telling their own story, not the story you want to tell yourself. Tell that story. Tell it in whatever means you want - fiction, art, cartooning, or just analysis. It’s your interpretation. Think of it this way - as a way of making a story out of the text that is yours and is beautiful.

And stop attacking creators and fellow fans over ships. Even if you think a ship is “unhealthy” it’s not your problem.

We have artistic references to and eye witness accounts of female gladiators (who were not called “gladiatrix” at the time). Not only that, but at least some of these women were not slaves. Some women actually chose the arena over the limited options available to them elsewhere. This was so much of a problem that in 11 CE the senate forbade freeborn women under 20 from participating, presumably because they had enough teenaged girls running away to the arena. The fact that girls would do this is more evidence that most contests were not to the death. These highly trained fighters would fight until one of them yielded. Although the thumbs down thing did exist, it was rare, because the judge would have to pay the gladiator’s owner compensation. So, I suspect it was reserved for slaves that were becoming, shall we say, a problem.

The confusion comes from the fact that executions took place during the games.

Women did not fight against men in the arena, but only against other women.

????? This is the guy in my English class that I only contact when I wasn’t in class. It’s too early for this.

Prison Industrial Complex when they see people getting out who only in jail for weed

me: why’d you emotionally abuse me my whole life? we all have questions …good night