fandom is a sandbox

Give me living bioweapons, whose very blood is toxic, whose drained on the daily to keep up supply and demand.

Give me magical or super powered whumpee who would never hurt people of their own free will, but Whumper is controlling them. Perhaps with simple mind control, or perhaps with drugs that show Whumpee their greatest fears, that make them lash out to defend themself, only to inadvertently hurt whoever's Whumper points them at.

Give me Whumpee who is doing Whumper's bidding only to save someone they care about. Whumpee who walks freely and has what looks like a normal life, but drops everything when they get one call, one name, one target.

So, instead of attacking the problem head on, they go for a different approach. Education. Suddenly, Whumpee’s days were no longer just sitting and staring at a wall, reaffirming their own worthlessness, they were studying. History. Philosophy. Literature.

Caretaker now had a bit less guilt about telling them what to do, they were teaching them, not training them. They could tell them to eat and drink because truthfully, their brain needed it. Same for sleeping.

And Whumpee seemed to pick up some of the subjects, showing genuine interest and something else more meaningful. Caretaker is happy to answer questions.

It’s been years and it was a hard path, with many setbacks, with a lot of anguish, and so much effort put into it.

Maybe they are getting a restraining order renewed, maybe Whumper runs into them in public, maybe it is a prison visit. Whumper lays eyes on Whumpee and tries to cruelly retraumatize them with snide remarks and reminders of what they did. But Whumpee remains unfazed and just watches Whumper.

Whumpee feels almost something like pity. It’s been years and still Whumper is stuck on their obsession, on their desire to hurt. It probably won’t ever change. But Whumpee got out, and now they’re truly over it.

Their words are smooth and honey-like, worming their way into Whumpee's ears and melting their resistance.

Whumpee would never in their right mind agree to give in but can't resist the mind games (whether magical, drug induced, or not).

"Aren't you so tired of fighting? Don't you just want to let go? Hand over all the responsibility to someone else? Let me take care of it. Don't worry about anything... Give it all over to me..." etc

Just someone who is so good at seeing what someone wants and promising it to them so they get what they want out of the situation (a follower, a servant, a victory, etc)

Seeing a whumpee who is so tired of holding it all together, who is so fatigued and overwhelmed but sticking through it with pure force of will and taking advantage of that.

tiny s1 mike dealing with the immense trauma of the upside down instead of will 🥺 the others trying their best to be normal and to help him but ultimately only will is able to get through enough for mike to tell

will being the one to know what to do for mike's crying spells and dissociative episodes or bursts of anger, them happening so much in s2 time that he and nancy have a party meeting to hopefully pass on that knowledge but then it turns out he's possessed

just mike never really knowing what to do but lean on will as he slowly loses everything and we all know how s2 goes. mike and will keep the memory of them meeting but nancy shares a memory of her and mike hanging out back when they were attached at the hip

then s3 happens and the wheelers end up moving to another state (not quite as far) and s4 happens and now we're at s5 where mike is just holding all of this in, barely talking about it except with nancy and will occasionally...

idk just mike having will's ud storyline and reacting in different ways and never dating el but too scared to act on his feelings for will too bc he feels too contaminated

holly still being kidnapped but it scares mike even more because he Knows what vecna is capable of

joyce being just as protective over mike as she is of will bc she's seen mike grow up and that's her son's best friend dammit!

the wheelers temporarily moving in with the byers... mike starting to have regular dissociative episodes again... mike n max having a stronger bond but she's still in a coma... mike having worse and worse nightmares until everything snaps and iykyk...

because fanon hux? is fanon arthur from inception. 

Sure! He’s usually something like this: -very tidy/a neat freak -pays a great deal of attention to his personal presentation (ie: is his uniform wrinkled? Is his hair mussed? Is he blushing? Has he lost his hat, or his leather gloves, has he got blood on his coat? Are his cufflinks okay? Is his suit endangered? All of these things would make him unhappy and definitely happen to him as a direct result of making out with his troublingly messy love interest) -just wants the galaxy/con/workplace to be Well-Ordered -is super competent/a genius/good at his job -very loyal to one or two friends, who are probably also his colleagues, because work is all he truly cares about -definitely a perfectionist -is often hilariously bitchy, and definitely big with the sarcasm -often described as cool/cold/chilly (actually maybe he’s the fandom cousin of the Frigid Workaholic Romcom Heroine who desperately needs a dude to mess up her life and teach her to relax?) -burns with fury at seeing people be inefficient and/or unprofessional -speaks in a slightly elevated register that has room for cursing but never for phrases like kid or buddy or cute boyfriend -emotionally repressed; expresses feelings through workplace shouting and biting comments and maybe whiskey but that is all   -probably hiding childhood trauma -is very prim about sex until he is having it, at which point he is revealed to be The Kinkiest -”hates” his love interest, who is sweaty and bloody and emotional and is gonna Mess Up his overly clean life -but obviously only in a Doth Benedick Loathe Beatrice So Entirely kind of way -tight-lipped with rage -embarrassed by how much he is into Inappropriately Messy Guy/embarrassed BY Inappropriately Messy Guy -scowls defensively -the idea of control is a big part of his sex life–either exerting or relinquishing it

wildehack:

In my view - and I’m sure it’s not an original one - Mr Fastidious-Kinky White Guy has a sister, a female character who is recreated again and again across fandoms. She’s the flawless pal of the main white boy couple, you know, the one who mostly exists to roll her eyes at their stupidity and probably save the world off screen while they’re getting their shit together.

Now, I’m being unfair. This character, as you’re saying with Hux, can be brilliantly written and wonderfully entertaining. I first came across her when deep into an obsession with Merlin, filling the role of Morgana - and perhaps significantly she mostly appeared in modern AUs. This Morgana was heart-stoppingly beautiful, wicked smart, eternally snarky, and in turns mean to and indulgent of ‘her boys’, who meanwhile spent the majority of each fic dithering about getting together. And I loved it every time. Actually, Morgana was generally my favourite part of these stories. She got all the best lines, and often felt like a refreshing and well-drawn character. If she didn’t much resemble the canon character, well, it’s hard to reconcile an increasingly murderous witch with a nice coffee-shop AU, especially when you genuinely like the character and want her to have nice things.

It was only a couple of fandoms down the line that she started to bother me. In particular, I found her in Teen Wolf. Mainly it was Lydia who took on the role, although most of the other Teen Wolf ladies could be co-opted into it. Again, I don’t mean to condemn the fandom. There are plenty of fics where lydia is a gloriously complex character. And as in Morgana’s case, there are plenty more where this archetype-Lydia is wonderfully written and puts a smile on my face. But ultimately, she is an archetype, created by the fandom to facilitate the getting-together of the white boy love interests.

And what I find particularly difficult about Morgana-Lydia-etc is that all too often, she’s not actually a minor canon character. Unlike Hux, she’ll often have be drawn in some detail by the writers. Maybe not in ways we always like or approve of, but she’s not an empty shell, and there’s really no need to superimpose a prepackaged character onto her.

When I tried to backtrack FFG the furthest back I could remember seeing her was Cordelia Chase’s Queen C characterization in Angel fics, so I’ve been calling Female Fandom Ghost ‘Queen Bee’

So there’s a very interesting post going around by @wildehack about how fandom keeps reusing the same characterization for different male characters without much basis in canon characterization

There has been Discourse about this, which is absolutely terrible to try to read because tumblr is terrible and needs a better design for discussions, seriously

A few responses pointed out that there is female version of the same fanon character, which is a fanon character trope I noticed a while back and then tried to find on TV Tropes and couldn’t (much more on this further down)

After reading through the Discourse on What It Means That Fandom Keeps Using This One Guy Character, and thinking about it for a while, it’s actually really important to consider that the female version of this character trope exists, and to keep that in mind for your What It Means That Fandom Keeps Using This One Guy Character reasoning

So, Female Fandom Ghost is:

-elegantly stylish and on top of current fashions -beautiful -hyper competent; excels at work/school; possibly a genius -organized and efficient -hilariously bitchy -can get ‘the boys’ to behave by giving them an unimpressed look -has a commanding presence (but not in a masculine way) -cool and aloof demeanor but not a loner -excellent social skills

Examples of characters fandom writes this way: Morgana from Merlin Lydia Martin from Teen Wolf Eve from Skyfall Uhara from Star Trek reboot Cordelia Chase from Angel

After poking around on TV Tropes, the best matches I could find were Alpha Bitch and Ice Queen http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AlphaBitch http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IceQueen http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DefrostingIceQueen

The Ice Queen is basically just a cold/aloof loner ? The Frigid Ice Queen that needs a persistent man to show her how to relax and have fun

Alpha Bitch characters, paraphrased from TV Tropes: -attractive -high social status -family connections (wealth, influential relatives) -in high school setting, often head cheerleader and dating head jock -fawning minions -teen drama villain -sharp tongue -manipulates people -likely to be narcissist, drama queen, fashionista, girly girl, valley girl, bratty daughter, daddy’s girl, attention whore and/or proud beauty -oppressed boyfriend

This is clearly not a positive trope!!

But rephrase it in a more positive light: -beautiful -a princess (in comparative family status terms or simply demeanor) -successful -other people in social group listen to her -hilariously bitchy -excellent social skills, can get people to do what she wants -fashionable -justifiably proud of her appearance (it takes a lot of effort to maintain!) and successes -well aware of her own worth and expects others to acknowledge it as well -not interested in a significant other that’s a controlling ass

Which matches up really well with the traits I’ve seen in Female Fandom Ghost

I’ve been calling FFG the ‘Queen Bee’ character, which TV Tropes actually has linked to ‘Alpha Bitch’ but the term doesn’t have such negative connotations

I’ve mostly come across Queen Bee characterization as a side character in m/m fic, or in non-explicit female-centric fics, BUT I don’t know how much of that is a side effect of the types of fics I read and common trends in female presence (of any characterization) in fanfics

I think it’s really interesting that a common fanon characterization trope is basically a really negative female character trope but re-framed in a very positive way

I’ve also wondered how much of the Queen Bee character is a response to pervasive social pressure on what a successful young woman looks like: beautiful, stylish, organized, competent, smart, excellent social skills, a princess in action if not by birth, feminine but not a pushover, etc. So all these impossibly high standards, why not stick them all in one character to show how amazing she is?

So then you have Male Fandom Ghost, who is basically the same character but male (with a few more masculine-coded traits) and getting more sexy action.

In the Discourse about Male Fandom Ghost, I’ve seen:

-MFG has feminine-coded traits, and so he is a self-insert type character for female authors @ingu + at least one other person -Male Fandom Ghost has feminine-coded traits, and so he is a gay stereotype @aimmyarrowshigh -MFG has privilege that other male characters don’t (?=traits are higher-class coding? I’m not sure if I’m interpreting that one correctly) @asphodelon -MFG has British-coded traits (does that mean British characters are high class, stereotypically gay and female author self-inserts? :P) -MFG is Byronic Hero character type @rainonsand -MFG is a character trope in girly anime that’s usually tall, dark haired with glasses and associated with medical industry (medical student, family owns medical supply company, veterinarian, etc) @mizushimo -MFG is a popular trope that isn’t utilized enough in media, so fandom keeps recycling this fanon characterization

As for the Queen Bee, I would argue that she definitely is a response to social expectations, and as a result, at least for some, embodies a female power fantasy. The male fandom ghost also has this function (alongside any self-insert function that exists). At its heart, I think the element of fantasy is inescapable, in that struggle between who you see yourself as and who you want to be has a constant push pull effect on how you understand yourself and the characters you encounter.

I do apologize for so greatly summarizing/reducing your previous discussion; I was really fascinated by your comments on self inserts and I’m very happy you expanded on that topic.

--

I'm working on a little thing right now where I'm postulating that while grief might numb the surviving partner's (here: an omega) heat for a while, but also - while they were bonded, their bodies (heat/rut, pheromones, habits and whatnot) adapted to each other, because they were *bonded*, right? That's a forever thing, and then it happened that they didn't get that forever.

Whumpee who needs to be constantly gagged bc they Will try to bite and spit on whumper.

Whumpee who, even in the thores of absolute pain, is glaring daggers at their whumper. Eyes glowing from all the unspilled tears and wrath

Whumpee who snarls back and doesn't follow commands uncaring of the extra pain that will follow

Whumpee who, even if they stop physically trying to fight back, still refuses to break. They can scream and cry from pain but they will Not let fear replace their anger.

Of course its not about "whether a character would break down" but "what would need to happen for them to break down".

Defiant whumpee who doesn't fight back as passionately over time. Who stops biting because they hate how the gag feels. Who looks away instead of keeping eye contact with the whumper.

You WILL love this person. It doesn't matter who you loved before; any feelings you had, any promises you made, they will become inconsequential as soon as you lock eyes with the stranger Fate has picked for you.

There's no way to stop it.

There's no way to say "no."

You will meet someone and with a single glance, both of you will become someone new, someone who's now bound to this stranger whether you like it or not, want it or not.