#coldflash fandom

Tumblr ate my first attempt at typing a reply so apologies if I forget anyone but I'd start here:

@coldflasher

@leonard-cold

@coldflashevents

@qlala

@theroguesharlequin

@eaion

1. They are both wonderful girls and deserve respect. 2. Allay makes Grant happy and that’s all you need to worry about. You don’t have a voice here. 3. If you don’t like Westallen then don’t ship it. Write and read your coldflash fanfics, make art, but don’t touch the character and especially the actress.

Hi Peachy!

This is incredibly sweet, thank you so much for sending this message, and for your lovely comment on Tumbling Together <3

And welcome to fandom and fanfiction!!

I'm honoured to have been your first fic experience and just so delighted that you enjoyed these stories and are (hopefully) enjoying yourself so far!

Fandom and its norms (which are always shifting) and silos and unique ways of doing thing can be both very inviting and very opaque depending on one's point of entry, so I hope that you've had a good experience thus far. One thing that I've always really loved about the coldflash fandom is how inviting it typically was and is. Like any large-enough group (or ship), there were definitely a few toxic elements back in its heyday, but for the most part a lot of us worked hard to make sure they didn't get traction because we loved this space so much and wanted to keep it positive, to the extent that we were able.

Meaning - the Arrowverse was such a lovely place for me to transition from being a fandom lurker to fandom creator and contributer, and I sincerely hope that your experience has reflected that positivity we aimed to build.

Thanks anon, this message was lovely! :)

As much as I love it though, me and @crimsondomingo can’t take too much credit (though I’m sure we’ll accept a little <333). And of course, we’ll share the credit with the dozens of other fantastic writers for this ship :) 

But beyond us, I think the pairing potential was/is totally there in canon and I know that tons of people hop onto the ship before ever realizing there’s fic for it haha. And it was partially more rare before I started writing because I started writing after 1x16 when the potential for them kind of exploded, thanks to Len learning Barry’s identity. There wasn’t near as much basis for writing before that, or for shipping (though I had read the existing 5-6 fics by that point…).

Actually, I think the follower count on this blog doubled after 1x22, and then doubled again after 2x03? Episodes with a lot of coldflash tension bring new shippers :3

It’s exciting, though, and amazing nonetheless. Two and a bit years later and I’m still a little mind-boggled at how much my life has changed since I started writing fic and started this blog, and how this little canoe that I expected to ship with 5-20 other people has turned into a cruiseliner with thousands of shippers and fics? 

It *existed*, but in a much smaller capacity. I’ve heard from 1-2 coldflash shippers from the comics, but it was a pretty small pair / rare pair. There’s also the “which Flash” question because some people (I think) shipped comics!Wally with Len, instead of comics!Barry.

And I think there was a bit more of it after the New 52 came along and made Len look less like a grumpy grandpa and more like his biceps are about to explode out of any shirt he’s wearing (and the fact that those biceps end up on display a lot with his ice powers). If you go to AO3 “barry allen/leonard snart” and sort by date and go back to the beginning, you’ll see a bit of comics-based stuff, like Lesser Evils.

Hey Anon,

I’ve already written with other writers in this fandom? Two of my works on AO3 are co-written, The Devil Will Drag You Under which I wrote with @crimsondomingo, and also All Worn Down That Lonely Road, which I wrote with @tempestsonata. Another piece (11. Going Canon) is part of a fandom compilation that I would count as co-writing. So that’s a total of 3 joint works posted to AO3, out of my total of 23 works. 

Not a huge percentage, I know, but I’ve also participated in more than one round-robin (back and forth writing) on here. Some examples include the Earth 23 round robin with @swingsetindecember (which now has a whole tag), who I’ve also gone back and forth with another time or two with ideas. There’s this Micheal Snart round robin that was with @crimsondomingo, @lisellevelvet, and @xxxneweyesxxx. There are even others, under tags like “team writing” and “round robin” and “tumblr drabbles” and “cold to my crimson” or with specific AU names, but I forget how to find half of them…

There’s also weird fics like Tumbling Together which I genuinely feel was half-written by the fandom because I basically crowdsourced ideas and worked them into the fic? I did all the writing itself but I swear, I just had a basic plot, all the wacky hijinks after the Whip Cream Fiasco™ were other peoples’ suggestions.

I’ve also gifted 8 out of 23 of my fics out, which isn’t the same as co-writing, but I’m often gifting because something someone else said inspired me to write that. They aren’t hands-on in the writing process, but it has been the case that they’ve maybe been a sounding board for me or helped me flesh out the idea back and forth. More than once, I’ve thrown ideas back and forth and had them really ‘catch’ with someone, even if it never made it’s way to becoming fic. Even for the de-aged AU I’m working on, that came entirely out of other’s writing or fandom discussions that inspired me.

As for fave writers in the fandom? I have huge amounts of respect for so many of the writers in this fandom, and would love to name a ton, but instead, I’ll direct you to my fic recs page.

Beyond that, I will give out a specific shout out to @crimsondomingo, with whom I have great synergy. We play off each other or have such a convergence of ideas (or else work in totally opposite tropes lmao), so we’ve done a surprising number of round robins and I even have a joint tag for us “cold to my crimson” (and should probably go back and edit a few posts that should apply to but isn’t on, whoops). 

It’s hard to say exactly, but I think there’s a few things. I’ve talked on this before, but I think it comes down a lot of the chemistry, the push and pull, cat and mouse dynamic they have. The impasse that implies a challenge but a mutual respect. The fact that they seem to understand one another and what the other thinks and will do, just that intuitive understanding of one another, despite the fact that really, they don’t know each other all that well. 

For me, a lot of it is from that, and from things like them being put in positions where they don’t necessarily want to trust and rely on the other, but do anyway, and they way they go from enemies to unimpressed allies. Their banter. 

There’s this concept in psychology called “flow”. It initially referred to a sort of state of being, but applies to a ton of things on a conceptual level, beyond just a mood or mode. It’s basically this:

If you’re too too at something, you get bored of it, and if you don’t have the requisite skills for it, you feel anxious and overwhelmed.

Applying this to relationships (and yes, this isn’t just me, there are actual published papers and books in psychology who apply this to relationships), you can see flirting being in a flow zone -- that sort of happy tension. You can see love occuring in a flow zone, where you don’t feel complacent and uninterested by the person, but you do feel safe and comfortable with them and inspired by them. 

And I think that in all their interactions, Len and Barry fall into the flow zone. They’re a mix of equal skills to meet the challenge the other creates, always making things harder but both so evenly matched they end up on this even level. And that’s true of a lot of heroes and their nemesis, but few do it with the sort of mutual respect and “i don’t actually want you to die / get hurt” vibe that Len and Barry do, the sort of teasing way they interact. 

And final notes? We get a lot of great moments and lines in canon. We get the woods scene in 1x16 where they make a tenuous deal, and then in 1x22 where they stand wayyy too close in Saints and Sinners and where Len betrays Barry but saves his life and teaches him a lesson. We get Barry trying to manipulate Len and Len dishing it right back. We get 2x03 where we get so much depth and exploration of Len and Lisa’s lives, and that gives so much weight to everything else going on between Len and Barry, I find.

(2/2) ...but it's also the end of time that everyone has invested and the beginning of new, hopefully just as awesome things. One can only hope that our good Captain will pop back up on Flash and give us more material. Stop being awful, showrunners! For the love of god! Really though you brought this on yourself by writing 73S and sucking us all into this crazy, honestly, look at what you've done.

Haha no worries dude. Like 3 independent commenters on posts or the fic or on anon called it that and I wasn’t weirded out so much as honored? I didn’t realize it before seeing all that, but I understand now why they feel that way. I forget just how many people came into the ship through TT and how many people have been patiently waiting for it to finish. 

And yeah, we can hope we’ll see Len on The Flash again. That’s the dream. I almost hate myself for hoping for it still, with how much these damn shows have burned us with fake-outs for Len, but most of me just aches to see it happen again. Not even for coldflash but just because I love that dynamic and Len being a villain without being evil.