Does Not Obey the Laws of Physics

I mean I know AO3 isn't the most representative sample, but since it's the easiest way to quickly tally and sort through the tags, it's what I'm using to measure fan engagement. And it's immensely annoying to find that Blade is the most used character tag in HSR fic (after filtering for CN language). And unsurprisingly, Blade takes the top 3/4 pairing tags (刃/丹恒，刃/丹枫，刃/景元). I'm mildly offended that 刃/丹枫 is more popular than 刃/景元 when 丹枫 is dead. WTF.

Also, it annoys me that poor 景元 is tagged in 1729 fics, but his main ship (刃/景元) only has 668 uses. Even adding in the second highest ship (景元/丹恒, 345 uses), that's still nowhere near his total tag. The fact there are 334 uses of 景元/彦卿 frustrates me to no end, because who even likes 彦卿, why do these people exist?!

Meanwhile, when looking into 景元/丹恒, 103 of those are simultaneously tagged with 景元/丹枫, and 61 are tagged with 刃/丹恒. So a good half of 景元/丹恒 is actually just a vehicle for another ship. I've also noticed that as soon as Blade shows up in any 景元/丹恒 or 景元/丹枫 fic, 景元 gets sidelined, because the main ship will always revolve around 刃/丹恒(应星/丹枫).

And my feeling is backed by the numbers. Under 景元 tag (1731), Blade shows up 872 times. 刃/景元 accounts for 639 of those fics. 丹恒 shows up 208 times in fics featuring both 景元 and 刃, and 127 of those appearances is 刃/丹恒 with only 78 appearances involving 景元/丹恒. Meanwhile, 丹恒 shows up 502 times under 景元 tag and of those, Blade shows up 208 times. Yet, 刃/丹恒 ship accounts for 116 of those 208 appearances, while 刃/景元 features a paltry 58 times. In other words, when 丹恒 appears in fics featuring 景元+刃, it's to predominantly pair up with Blade; when Blade shows up in fics featuring 景元+丹恒, it's to predominantly pair up with 丹恒. 景元 is basically an after thought.

My hate for Blade is reaching stratospheric levels.

Preamble (more like pre-ramble):

I'm going to switch to using 丹枫 and 丹恒 rather than English names because I realized the two names look too much alike in English and I keep accidentally mixing them up. There's more obvious visual distinction in Chinese, so.

On the subject of 1/1.5/2-person discussion

This entire discussion is purely driven by ship goggles. I wish fangirls would recognize that canonically there is only one interpretation: 丹枫 and 丹恒 are 2 separate people. The story is unequivocal about this, even with 2.5 patch's terribly inconsistent writing.

Why? Because the story is 100% behind the belief that 丹恒 is innocent of any wrong doing. 丹恒 is the victim, has always been portrayed as the victim, and the narrative never wavered on this point. While 丹恒 the character might be waffling back and forth about who he is and how he interprets himself, the narrative has not.

Because if the narrative actually agreed with 丹恒's logic, then the story would not allow 丹恒 to continue being a free person. The meta-texual ethical justification for 丹恒's continued participation as a member of the MC's party is because the narrative has always treated 丹恒 as a separate entity from 丹枫. The canon simply does not support an alternative interpretation.

With that said, the entire argument regarding 1/1.5/2-person interpretation is driven solely by shipping, specifically the type of romance that can be written depending on where one stands in the 1/1.5/2 debate. Are we good? All right, then on to the actual discussion.

( Why 1/1.5/2-person stance matters )

In conclusion

1-person theory is doomed to tragedy or ignoring 饮月之乱 via AUs. 1.5-person theory cannot absolve 丹恒 of criminal liability via memory loss excuse. 2-person theory absolved 丹恒 of 丹枫's crime, but turns him into a replacement goldfish.

Every version has problems, but the 2-person theory is the most ethically sound. But also maybe y'all should try shipping 景元/丹枫 instead, since that's where the actual emotional foundation lies.

Need to be in bed, but too hot so brain is occupied with Jing Yuan and how it's hard to find a half-way decent fic.

So, there's a few fanon peeves that's really starting to get to me:

• Constant giving female genitalia to male characters to avoid writing gay sex. Like, geebus, this is a space faring civilization, lube is a thing they've invented.

• This insistence on JY being a child and being treated as one by the Quintet. It's really annoying because while it's not necessarily against canon, there's plenty of hints that JY was an adult by the time he joined up with the Quintet, not the least of which being his character story Part III clearly stating: "他的应变急智和实用主义手段屡屡让上级们难忘又头疼。最终，受到前任罗浮剑首的邀请，景元加入其所部为之效力，开启了「云上五骁」传奇之路。" — He has already established himself in the Cloud Knights and it was only after he made a name for himself that he then got invited to join the Quintet.

• Literally no one trying to write any hurt-comfort despite Dan Feng possessing healing abilities and JY being a front-line soldier. Seriously, where the fuck are my hurt-comfort fics?

• The majority seem to take the stance that Jing Liu would just let Dan Feng do whatever to her disciple. Given her rather hardass stance and fandom's insistence on making JY a child, I find this immensely unbelievable.

• No one seems to want to explore the politics. Despite the majority of the angst Dan Feng experienced being the result of said politics. FFS.

• Literally no one is able to write an actual military campaign fic. Like...zero people seem interested in trying to imagine how the military campaign might've been carried out by the Cloud Knights given that's like the majority of the Quintet's interaction. Logistics. Supply lines. Geography. Tactics. There's so much to work with here and no one is interested in how each of the Quintet contributed to a functioning military. I'm seriously confused, because there's so many examples to copy from yet everyone is stuck on love-triangle drama.

• But seriously, making JY a child during the Quintet days is crippling the fandom's ability to write remotely interesting fic. No wonder Adventurine/Dr. Ratio is getting more stuff written about them.

( Personal headcanon )

I just lost an entire day catching up on the JoCat drama.(Alt link if you are also having problems with Reddit like I am.)

First, JoCat is literally the most wholesome person ever and I've been basically dealing with stress by listening to his Heart of Elynthi D&D campaign. (It is awesome and the most fluffy, lovable, and wholesome thing on the internet and you should all go coo at the adorable little puzzles and monsters he sets up for his players to fight and everything is just immensely positivity all the time and nothing hateful and it's just a lovely slice of escape from the horrible things happening in the world.) So the fact that he's been bullied off of the internet by a bunch of self-important twats is pretty sad.

Second, if there's any proof that being part of a marginalized group does not in fact make you any more of a sympathetic or kind or accepting person, it's this incident where too many people who ostensibly identify as part of a victimized minority are gleefully ripping into someone for being non-conforming. Like...way to go guys, way to fucking eat your own.

Third, the amount of people trying to deflect by pointing out that there are also genuine crazy conservative right-wingers who are doing this is not helping because...uh, aren't you supposed to be differentiating yourselves from said crazy conservative right-wingers?

Fourth, I feel like it needs to be said that misgendering a cis person is just as bad as misgendering a trans person. Like, this is a given, yes? We can agree it's bad regardless of who is being misgendered because misgendering is a bad thing to do, right? Having transitioned or identifying as transgendered does not make you an expert on other people's gender. I thought this was basic shit?

Fifth, I fucking swear if I hear one more person try to explain how "gender" and "genitalia" are not the same thing and therefore if you are not sexually turned on by whichever genitalia you are a transphobe, I'm going to start actually turning into that horrible internet gnome that I rag on. Sometimes people get turned off by specific genitalia through no fault of their own nor the fault of their partner and you need to stop psychoanalyzing that shit and just accept sex ain't happening AND THAT'S FINE. Like, fuck's sake, grow up and realize you are not owed sexual attraction just because you checked the appropriate "boy/girl" box! The sheer amount of self-proclaimed pro-trans people (I'm hedging because astroturfing is also a thing) who jump down anyone's throat for stating "I don't like dick/vagina" and start throwing accusation of transphobia around without any context (or accept the possibility that maybe some people's sexual libido is inseparable from genitalia and this is actually not stemming from some kind of internalized bigotry) just kind of...like, holy fuck, you cannot be sitting here demanding acceptance when you can't even accept the possibility that physical libido might be tied to physical stimulus. What the actual fuck?

(Again, if your libido is not linked to genitalia, great. More power to you. That doesn't mean everyone's libido isn't hugely affected by genitalia and physical stimulus. HOLY FUCK GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE.)

(Also, also, it sounds like none of these internet gremlins have heard of medication that affects libido — shock, physical chemicals in your body can change what turns you on?! Yes, it's true, our biology is in fact a slave to the physical reality of the world and not actually under the control of our "free will" as we once thought.)

Finally, this internet drama is so FUCKING POINTLESS because the real problem is not some dude who likes cat ears and singing about liking a wide variety of physical characteristics of female characters on the internet. JoCat is not the reason transgendered people can't go to the bathroom or are excluded from amateur athletics programs or have a higher mortality than their cis-gendered counterparts. Go touch grass.

Um. Yeah. So apparently fandom is moving back to Tumblr?

Fuck you fandom.

I'm not following this stupid ass train anymore. I'm just gonna sit here on DW and enjoy my tiny, tiny corner of the internet where I don't have to be fighting all fucking day just to point out maybe you have no fucking nuance and need a chill pill.

At least I can trust DW to do something about anyone who tries to harass me, unlike basically every other social media website out there.