#dumpling rants

THIS drives me crazy:

Does anyone else get these suggested articles? They make me so mad, all the time, for various reasons. I don't click them anymore because I want to stop getting them. So to be fair, I haven't read this one. Specifically what I'm mad about this time is the beginning of the title: "After Fans Begged Kohei Horikoshi To End Manga..."

Do people not get how manga works? Each chapter is drawn, colored, and lettered individually. You are getting anywhere from 7-16 pages every week if you're lucky. That's not a lot! "It's taking too long"? Look at how it translates into an anime season. It's not all that fucking long actually! But the process is!

We are blessed enough to be able to get chapters every week because of technology. Before? You used to have to wait for the magazine or the actual physical copy of the manga to release. But because we are all about instant gratification, we've become ungrateful. But let me tell you: YOUR impatience should not have any sway or effect in the timeline of content creation. If it's taking too long for you, move on and come back when it's finished. Leave Hori alone. At the end of the day it's his story, not ours. We're just lucky that 1) he decided to share it and 2) that he met the right people to make it happen and what it is today.

Grow up.

and why instagram fandom culture is a fucking shitshow

So first, a little bit of context: I’ve recently found my art reposted on instagam, all three times (that ive seen) without asking, and two of them without the slightest hint of proper crediting.First repost i saw was okay, they didnt ask but at least they had my tumblr properly written in the credit. So i left a nice comment telling them to please ask the next time around and change the credit to link my instagram directly instead of my tumblr. They responded within literally a minute, apoligised, and made the changesSecond repost is where it gets worse. Note that both repost had about 5 times as many likes as my OWN POST of the same drawing. This one just had “Credit to Artist” written in its description, and thats it. i left another comment, later sent them a message, nothing for a day. granted, they coulda just not been on instagram for the day, but still. Then, one of their friends DMed me telling me my comment was rude and harsh lmao. Luckily, in the end, the reposter added the proper credit and seems to have learned, they started crediting properly now. Third repost was literally just a really shittily cropped screenshot of one of my drawings without ANY mention of credit in the description, and it still got more likes than it even got notes here on instagram.

But here’s the tea: Whenever you go into any character’s tag on instagram, literally 90% of the content youll see is shoddily reposted art, with the rarest of cases providing proper credit. Inbetween, you’ll occasionally find an artist’s own post, but here comes the problem: most original posts get way less likes than the following shitty reaposts on various character-focussed profiles. Fandom people on instagram dont give a flying fuck about the actual content creators of the pictures they repost so much, and it fucking sucks. While all these countless blogs on instagram steal other peoples work to gain likes and followers, im sitting there with my incredible 30 followers on insta trying to get any sort of recognition.

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And I don't know.... I've had SO many predictions throughout this entire series and here we are, at end game, and I have no clue. Because Horikoshi is so talented at turning things where I least expect. Don't believe me?

Did you see "Kacchan of the Bakugos" live on world wide television happening?

Did you see "cutest girl in the world" happening?

Did you see "spend the rest of our lives together" happening?

(Spoiler Alert: There are so. many. more!)

Like we anticipated a lot of things as a fandom but then he would also smack us in the face with scenes straight out of our favorite fanfics. And why? Why did he do that? Why did he REUSE the line from School Briefs about Katsuki's relationship with girls in the final chapters of the manga? He didn't have to do that. He didn't have to do any of this!

Those were choices. Choices he actively made. Choices Shonen Jump let be published. Choices Bones is now animating. And it's because of those choices and that follow through that I'm so unsure now.

This all feels too pointed... Too intentional for there to not be a final bkdk scene/ending. So why the hesitation in predicting a bkdk ending?

Because. This ending isn't about the fandom. This ending isn't about "who's ship wins". And if you think that's all that's on the line here, then I'm sorry. I'm truly sorry, cause you missed it. You missed the point of this series and what bkdk as a canon couple would actually mean in the real world 2024.

MHA is one of the top animes in the world. Check the numbers. Not Japan. Not American. The world! Do you understand what it would mean to have a canon gay couple as leads in a mainstream Shonen anime? How many people that would reach?

Representation in media matters. Representation in MAINSTREAM media MATTERS. God, I could do a whole seminar on this topic but the point HERE being: a canon gay superhero couple in a top Shonen anime would have a massive effect on a global scale. And how many need to see that? How many people could that help? How many people could it change?

And though Horikoshi has shown a heavy leaning towards a bkdk end game, that doesn't mean he has to, or even can, follow through on it. Unfortunately, it's not up to JUST him. Shonen Jump could tank it. Bones could tank it! Do you get it yet? It's going to take A LOT for this to happen. And frankly my heart is having a hard time with it...

Because we've seen creators fight this fight before. The Legend of Korra. SheRa. Both always intended to have queer leads. But had to fight TOOTH AND NAIL with everything they had just to get a final closing scene.

We've also seen queer baiters. So many have pointed out the similarities to how Naruto felt. And because of the nature of the series' mangaka, we will never know what the truth is on that matter.

We've felt shunted by the system. We've felt laughed at for having hope to see a love like ours up on that screen.

But now we have hope again. And there /is/ a chance. There is a really real chance right now- that we could actually get it...

Please for the love of queer go listen to it, validate me, and then someone write a fic about it. I'm dying over here.