I’d love to hear what fanfiction is to you. Why you write it and read it. Is it a place to escape? To have your faves go through what you are or have gone through? A place to try and make the most accurate versions of characters and put them in new senarios? Is it a place to have fun and make yourself laugh? Is it something else entirely? For me, it is a way for me to process my feelings through fictional beings. I want to see my fave characters be happy and loved because I want to be.

Oh, what a beautiful question! Thank you for asking haha.

So fanfiction is just fiction, to me. For as many original novels as we have out there, fanfiction has always been a massive part of culture. Dante’s Inferno is Bible fanfiction. Cultures retold their myths over and over again. It’s a form of art and storytelling that has been around for basically forever. I write original fic too, but fanfiction I don’t think of as lesser writing, and I think the culture that mocks it is stems from misogynistic attitudes towards fandom. 

For me, my favorite part of any story is the characters. Hence, when I write fanfictions I try to focus on them and their development. I often write ships because shipping is fun for me, but I’m working on one right now that is gen and for some characters I only want to read gen. I guess that’s because it comes down to the character. 

I like AUs because I want to explore characters in new settings, because I think while some parts of them would clearly shift in a different world, other parts of what make them intrinsically who they are as characters would stay the same, and I write to get to know them, I suppose. 

Whether AU or canon-verse, I think I’m writing to get to know the characters more. I want to see how they would act in a world I’m familiar with, like a boarding school, or a fantasy setting, or pirates on the high seas, etc. I want to see how, in canon, it might be possible for characters to work out happy endings for themselves, find hope against the odds. For example, for my HxH fics, I want to examine Hisoka and find out what makes him who he is, but more importantly, what he wants, because if I know what he wants it’s easier to start scraping away at him to try to force him to develop in a way I would like him to (redemptively). Canon is amazing in HxH and I have no complaints really, but it’s still fun to explore the possibilities, because I believe the world is full of possibilities and our choices with whatever we’re given do matter, so I like exploring scenarios in which characters would be driven to realizations and potentially growth. 

Characters are like friends. To be clear, I think you absolutely must maintain a healthy detachment to the extent that, if someone says “I don’t like x character” and you think that’s an insult on you and lash out back, you need to step back from fandom. But I also think characters are powerful, powerful creations that can truly impact people, and you can maintain a healthy perspective and still truly love them. Kaneki Ken, for example, saved my life. People can genuinely love characters and suffer with them, and grow with them. I’d like to explore those points of connection with the characters I connect with in my fanfictions. I think it helps me know myself, too. The more I write, the more I know what I think and believe. So I completely relate to what you say about using it as a way to process your feelings! 

Writing, for me, whether original or fanfiction, is relaxing and stressful at the same time. It’s hard and it’s lifegiving, and it’s gotten me up in the morning and made me anxious at the same time. It’s fun, or I wouldn’t do it, but it’s also work, and fanfiction’s no less work than original fic, at least not inherently. But it’s a way to be involved with something I love (stories, and fandom). 

personally I don’t think Eren cares so much about Levi as he cares about his friends from the 104. I think it’s quite possible that he helps Zeke kill Levi when the time comes, because Zeke certainly has something planned for Levi knowing how dangerous he is and Eren is willing to help Zeke in whatever he needs believing in the promise that Zeke will help him back.

I understand, but I personally disagree, though you’re allowed your opinion too! I think Levi has always been a mentor and a father figure to Eren, and Levi’s foiling with Zeke seems to indicate this as well. Qhile Eren is pretty far gone at this point I don’t believe he’s not the same person they used to know either. We will see.

I have the feeling that Levi’s life is at great risk.honestly I’m thinking he’s going to die and the worst is that Eren is probably going to be part of it

LA LA LA I CANT HEAR YOU

Kidding. Sigh. That is… my worst fear right now too, especially if this is the last arc which frankly it’s looking like it might be. It does seem pretty clear that there’s going to be some kind of clash with Levi, Eren, and Zeke, and tbh at this point I’m half expecting Gabi and Falco to show up too. There are many, many potential outcomes. 

I do not think Eren would willingly nor knowingly hurt the people he loves, though, and that does include Levi. He was devastated at Sasha’s demise. That being said, he’s almost certainly being manipulated by Zeke to an extent and is allowing it for Reasons, and now a bunch of other people are involved, and so things outside of his control could happen. If the worst did happen, I do think Eren would be anguished over it, but I would hope that if that did occur it would jumpstart Eren into realizing how wrong he’s acting. But I Do Not want Levi to die so I’m going to hope and pray he doesn’t just yet. 

This is really gonna become a massacre by the time the second week of the voyage begins. I don’t know what to expect anymore. :'(

I know. I’m really, really worried for Fugetsu. Like really worried. All the princes really, except Woble and Oito who I still strongly believe will be Okay. But like the entire boat is basically a whale with food poisoning because everyone inside it is trying to kill each other. 

I hope we see the Troupe and Morena soon, though. 

snk chapter is out and translated

Thank you Anon! I just read it. It’s interesting how it resembles a lot of… real world events right now. My initial, incoherent thoughts are as follows:

Aruani is my jam and Isayama served it to me warm and on toast with Hitch blessing it. I love Hitch, guys. I love her. 

Armin and Mikasa’s desperate faith in Eren starting to waver is heartbreaking.

Farewell Zackley I only regret that your end was swift.

I’m absolutely bloody terrified for Levi in the coming chapters. Don’t you think about it you rabid bitter man you Zeke.  

If Pieck is in Paradis, dare I hope Porco and Reiner et all are as well? Because if Porco is I’m betting Historia might get focus soon and I. Need. To see my queen’s thoughts. 

Hange is a boss. 

Floche, stop trying to make Eldia great again. 

Eren, I love you, but right now I want to slap you. 

KACHOOO NOOOO. I just read the chapter and I’m sad. Respect to her for putting her sisters safety as a priority but damn did I want her to live too. Damn Togashi for making us care even though we knew one was going to die (also for not sexulaizing them, it’s such a low standard but respect), I don’t care who wins, I just want the youngest ones to live.

I like, ugly cried. That chapter hurted. And I somehow suspect the pain this volume isn’t going to abate.

Same. Woble is the only one I’m sure who will live, but I’m concerned that Fugetsu and Marayam might not and I. Really need them to. But if Fugetsu does like I wonder if she’ll have to leave “Kacho” behind… the others I think I have given over for dead, but Fugetsu and Marayam deserve to survive. So did Kacho and Momoze. :’’’) 

What is protagonist coded?

Mmmm someone we’re supposed to see as one of the “good guys” for lack of a better term. For example, Palm is a Hunter who helps Gon and Killua find Bisky and warns them of her instability before she even starts displaying how severe it is, and is working with Gon and Killua to get into NGL. They’re framed as someone we’re not supposed to be fearful of in the narrative (Palm’s instability is mostly just for laughs though it pays off later), whereas say Hisoka or Illumi or Chrollo are characters we’re supposed to be leery of because they are actively creating obstacles for our heroes. 

Is hisoka considered a pedo

Under the cut for subject matter. As a prelude… this topic is distressing for me, so I won’t answer follow ups (I’m not annoyed with you at all anon, and please don’t feel badly about sending this: it’s a fair question, it’s just. I have done some work in child protection, so this topic brings up unpleasant memories). 

The short answer is: I understand why people use that term, but I don’t use it for Hisoka because I don’t think it’s what Togashi is attempting to portray him as; he exhibits attraction to anyone and everything that challenges him. I think that term should not be used casually, as Tumblr as a whole tends to trivialize it and misuse it (like, people say shipping two adults with an age difference of ten years is pedophilia; it’s not), which has a real world affect of desensitizing people to a concept that should repulse us. 

Longer answer under the cut:

My question would be: is Palm a pedophile? Because she engages in some of the same behavior in exhibiting attraction to Gon, despite being a protagonist-coded characters as opposed to Hisoka’s antagonistic coding. Most readers I think would say no, because if you classify Palm–a fictional character–as a disgusting real world concept for people who are the worst of the worst–you miss the entire point of her character. That she’s someone who desperately wants to be loved because she wants a place to fit, who is mentally unstable, and who deconstructs the yandere trope masterfully, becoming one of the CAA’s heroes, a survivor of sexual abuse via Bizeff, and is a fantastic foil for Killua, Alluka, and Illumi while we’re at it. Like, I sincerely doubt Killua would have been able to do what he did in the Election Arc in facing Illumi and saving Alluka if he hadn’t had to confront the ugly, obsessive part of himself in Palm already. 

Technically, Hisoka does exhibit attraction to Gon and Killua. That being said, I think applying real-world concepts to a fictional character–who is not real–is distasteful and triggering, and this applies to Hisoka as well as to Palm. Hisoka is a wildly popular character with fans and with other mangakas such as Tokyo Ghoul’s Ishida Sui, who identified him as his favorite character. There is nothing to be gained by using that term for Hisoka because it reduces a fictional character to a real world concept that, in the real world, deserves no sympathy and utter condemnation, but that simply is reductive to apply to his character and the role he plays in the story’s plot, characterization, and themes. Not that pedophile characters don’t exist in anime or manga, but when they do it’s abundantly clear (think Dino in Banana Fish, whom we are clearly supposed to see as an abusive monster). Hisoka channels his interest in people via both wanting to fight to kill them and mixes that up with sexual attraction, and seems to have the ability to express that in regards to anyone–Illumi, Machi, etc. It’s creepy. But I’m not comfortable applying that term. 

I personally do not feel as if it’s a good decision for Togashi to include such an allusion to a nauseating real world concept because it can be like asking your readers to misread Hisoka. That’s my personal opinion, though. Within the text,  I’m not going to use that term to refer to him as it currently stands. If someone else does want to use it, though, they’re entitled to; this is just my personal stance.