I'm dying of laughter here.

[azurite]

It's always fanficrants. Always. Someone wanked a couple of day(s) ago, and she used my icon to do it. She gave me credit though, so I can't complain. But anyhow... it was basically one of those tired rants about slash in Yu-Gi-Oh. You know me guys, I have a policy of "don't like, don't read." Most authors in my fandom are kind enough to label their pairings-- after all, there are over 560 of them, so it's nice to know if your fic is Puzzleshipping or Puppyshipping. We shouldn't have to guess, and NO, it's not always clear from context (damn those group orgies).

I like the Enhanced Search and some C2s on FFnet. I like trusting the people on my Favorites List more.

But I was tempted to tell this girl the same thing everyone else beat me to:
(1) It's canon, not cannon, no matter how much you'd like to blow them up
(2) Just because it's not stated in the anime or manga doesn't mean a character has a set sexuality. Frankly, I can easily see Mai and Anzu as being bisexual, and Shizuka might even experiment. Jounouchi might even test his boundaries, and he's one of those who's actually professed open affection/attraction to a woman in canon!

I think the thing that really irks most hetshippers in YGO is that the writing just plain sucks. Like Puzzleshipping all you want, but if you don't have the sensible writing to back it up, your precious OTP is no better than moldy bread. Sorry. There's also no hierarchy of pairings, het or otherwise. Azureshipping isn't better than Persevere, Devotion, Peach, or Revolutionshipping (note: all Anzu pairings! Hee!), nor are any of them any "less worthy" than Puzzleshipping, Puppyshipping, or Shinkanshipping (don't know why THAT one came to mind).

I suppose the thing that really kills me is that now we have our own pet troll. I don't know whether I missed some post saying "Okay, we're not going to ban the dipshit who started the recent spree of trolling, instead we're going to have them be our official PET troll, and anyone else who wants to troll here has to get PERMISSION first..." I mean seriously. We have a pet troll. Its name is antifanficrants, of all things. I don't get it, I really don't. It still makes me laugh-- sometimes.

It does make me wonder though, about people who intentionally start up troll journals and the like. I mean really, I can't imagine these people sitting at computers somewhere and... what, dripping burrito sauce over the keyboard? Snorting orange Slice over their monitor? Giggling like mad, laughing like crazy, or blowing incessant bubbles of gum? Are they fat, skinny, congested, red-faced, Texans, Australians, I mean REALLY? I just find it so hard to imagine people that actually spend perfectly good time being idiots. On purpose.

The one thing that irked me about the post was how people claimed the OPer was generalizing (and she was), but also they said that "most of us here are slashers." Uhm, *raises hand* No! And last I checked, I didn't elect some spokesperson to speak for me. I'm sure there are others that feel the same, but since I don't moderate the comm. and know every last soul in it, I can't say. I wish people would leave comments like that OUT of the discussion, as they're not too related and they hardly qualify as necessary.

...Some people actually started sitting down with virtual popcorn and cocktails. Heaven save us.

This person didn't INTEND to be a troll, but... well, 214 comments later...

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I'm not against slash because it's against my religion, against my beliefs, or whatever. I say if a writer can make it work plausibly, deviated from canon or otherwise, more power to them. You can find innuendos and subtext in everything. But it makes me uncomfortable.

Femmeslash, for some reason, does not. Maybe because I'm bi. But straight (PUN!) out, guy-on-guy makes me uncomfortable. I have gay friends, I love them to bits, I still don't like slash. Don't hate me.

I could rant some more on the difference between yaoi and shounen-ai, how buttsex does not self-lube, and how really, perspective and bias highly come into play when reading or viewing canon material and deeming what is considered a "gay moment!" or not. But... my  brain hurts enough as it is, thanks.

One other thing... maybe it's just me and my browser or the time of night or whatever, but whenever crpsaiyan posts, all the entries below hers suddenly take on her text-posting style (big text, new font). I can't fix it. ;_; Help?

Comments

[-hisgirlfriday-.livejournal.com]

Just because it's not stated in the anime or manga doesn't mean a character has a set sexuality. Frankly, I can easily see Mai and Anzu as being bisexual, and Shizuka might even experiment.

*ducks* Personally, I got the impression that Shizuka has a crush on Mai -- whether it's romantic in nature (or other people see it as even being there) or not is up to other people, but....

I don't know. I think there's a lot of femmeslashy subtext in Yu-Gi-Oh. I mean, in Duelist Kingdom, I got a very heavy Mai/Anzu vibe too. Slashy hints are suprisingly harder to find for me.

The only real point of this comment is to confirm what you said about personal bias coming into things, I guess. I mean, I never consciously look for femmeslashy "hints" -- they just pop out at me -- but I have to deliberately read between the lines. While I like both slash and femmeslash (and het!), there's no denying I like femmeslash most, so...yeah.

I could've just said "Word." and had a much more sane, coherent response, but what's the fun in that? ;)

(And I don't think that being squicked by slash makes you bad or homophobic. =/ Really, it's just a personal preference. YGO isn't one of them, but there are some fandoms where het makes me uncomfortable. I certainly don't consider myself heterophobic, though.)

[-hisgirlfriday-.livejournal.com]

ARRRRGH. but I have to deliberately read between the lines. should say but I have to deliberately read between the lines for male slash.

*nod nod*

[azurite]

Exactly! I honestly think it depends on the mood of someone. Because honestly, I've never been a shounen-ai fan, but while watching the movie, I could see plenty of moments that would send Puzzleshippers up the wall with giggles. Someone else in the audience would have looked at me and gone "huh?" and likewise pointed out incidences of Peachshipping or Revolutionshipping that *I* missed-- and those are two of my pairings! So it's about perspective + mood + whatever else...

Word is one of those things you say when you just agree wholeheartedly and can't think of anything else to say. I appreciate the elaboration. And it was more fun, too-- you're right.

You know what I find weird though? There are plenty of other fandoms out there with one or two girls and a whole harem of guys, but the guys are NEVER paired off with each other. o_O I wonder what it is.

Re: *nod nod*

[-hisgirlfriday-.livejournal.com]

XD The movie's a whole other kettle of fish. I kept seeing Peachshippy, Puzzleshippy, Revolutionshippy and Toonshippy hints EVERYWHERE. Now, I like Peach- and Toonshipping, so those two could be chalked up to me seeing what I want to see, I guess. But I'm indifferent to Revolutionshipping and downright anti-Puzzleshipping, so...yes. Mood is definitely a contributing factor.

XD True enough.

You know, I have no idea, but now that you point that out, you're right. o.o;; And I have no idea why. I've also noticed some people who are shounen-ai fans where YGO are concerned, but support all (or almost all) het pairings in other fandoms. It's just very odd.

Re: *nod nod*

[azurite]

Specifically, when I made that comment, I was thinking of Hot Gimmick. Admittedly, it's a shoujo series, but it's got enough sex and hot girls in it to PROBABLY pique the interest of a guy... maybe, right?

Anyhow, there are about 2 girls who are main characters-- the big, main one is Hatsumi, and she's got at LEAST 3 prospectives, who are also enemies in their own ways... X_X And yet no one ever wants to see the guys pair up with each other to leave Hatsumi in the dust. So I was wondering why that's the case with YGO-- is it just a matter of contorted female interest in a shounen-based fandom?

Re: *nod nod*

[-hisgirlfriday-.livejournal.com]

Quite possibly. Also, in Yu-Gi-Oh!, the main characters are boys. It's different, I think, for Hatsumi, whose a main protagonist (or at least, it sounds that way from the way you describe it--forgive me if I'm off), as opposed to Yu-Gi-Oh!, where the central characters are mostly men and the central protagonist is a boy. It's not just the amount of males in a series, I think; it's whether or not the series is seen as "male-oriented" in the sense that the most appealing, interesting characters are male, and the gender of the POV character.

Uhm. Does that make sense? (And I'm not saying the YGO! girls aren't interesting, because of course they are! But the guys, especially Kaiba and Yami no Yuugi (and Jounouchi to some extent) get the most overt development.

Right. Clearly, I don't know what I'm talking about anymore.

Re: *nod nod*

[azurite]

No, no, you're totally spot-on. You're right about the difference in the series being the POV, because if one were to truly define YGO as being shoujo or shounen, it's definitely shounen. It's got the mandatory action, rivalry, magic and mystery, (hot) girls in need of saving, personal sacrifice and growth, and oh yeah! The 5-episode long duels. ^^;