Do Fandoms Scare Anybody Else?

Do fandoms scare anybody else?

I don't mean that as an insult to people, in general, in fandoms--God knows I'm part of a ton--but people who genuinely take this deathly seriously?

Like, for example, I'm a zutara shipper--oh no, blasphemy, I know, anyways. I have NEVER seen a kataang video with comments like "zutara>kataang," "zutara better," etc., etc., etc. (My PERSONAL experience. Chill). But it's rare to see a zutara video without seeing a whole ass ship war breaking out in the comments.

Another universe I enjoy is ASOIAF, and lately HOTD. But God DAMN, the fandom scares me--full grown adults flat out ignoring stuff that happens in the show because they don't want to accept the fact that NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD PEOPLE. "Alic*nt." "The Whore of Dragonstone." "Lol toddler death it was justified tho." I don't even know any more. They're fictional, and just because the world is brutal and misogynistic, doesn't mean you should try and make fandom spaces safe spaces to vent your own misogyny. Like, Christ.

Well, I have a recent hyperfixation on the sunfire royal family, so I'd probably just have. More of them. In general. Is this realistic, considering their roles in the story, and the length of the actual story? No, but nobody ever specified being realistic.

Mind you, I'm not talking really changing any major plotlines, I'm just talking one or two interactions thrown in there. Khessa finds Janai in private before they take viren to the sunforge and, you know, all that happens (janai's on her way to tell Amaya the tea, as she did in the show already), and shows some concern for her about something--khessa worries about janai getting soft, worries about her little sister being tricked by the malevolent humans, whatever, just something to show that she really cares for janai? 90% of khessa's screentime is spent condescending to janai and I just want ONE decent interaction before khessa disintegrates.

Oh, and Karim appears in season 3. He was probably meant to be off studying or something in season 3, but it means we don't see too much of janai and karim's pre-war dynamic? Just karim being in the throne room when janai enters with amaya, being the one to back her up about not killing amaya. He calls khessa "sister" so we know their relationship. When khessa's dying, he witnesses it firsthand and manages to escape corruption or death by aaravos; he shows up at the storm spire with janai and amaya, supporting his sister, being suspicious of callum's magic, fighting alongside the troops, yada, yada, yada. A quick scene of him hugging janai or something after the battle, idk. Then in season 4, when he decides he's going to kill her, actually, it's a lot sadder because we KNOW they love each other, we KNOW they had a pre-war dynamic--it's this one ideological difference that prevents them from keeping it.

Plus, more of an emphasis on how karim wants things to "go back to normal." He wants janai to be more ruthless and dismissive of different things, more grandeous and decisive (even detrimentally so), like khessa was. He wants spectacles and ceremonies and fire prisons and what-have-you, and he wants to be his sister's right hand. He doesn't care for humans, or even other elves. He fully buys into sunfire supremacy; he doesn't think that the human soldiers can defeat sunfire soldiers, he doesn't buy that callum is actually a primal mage, he likes amaya well enough, but he doesn't really respect her. Karim, at this point, would have been established to have been at khessa's hand and have her ear, and he wants to occupy the same position with janai, but janai has a different worldview now, and it's not like she's isolated and has only her brother to turn to: she has her (girl) friend, amaya, who's also a human, and amaya's bestie gren, and her new scholar friend kazi (add in a line about how that's "beneath" janai, in karim's head). She was a general, presumably for years; she probably has SOME sort of relationship with the soldiers who served under her. Plenty of whom would have been at the storm spire, fighting alongside humans and being saved by humans and being helped by humans after. The cracks are starting to form in the worldview they've held onto for years and that karim still can't let go of, and, in HIS eyes, his power and position is being stripped away and being given to humans and "lower" elves.

I think this has run away from me, lol...but anyways, more sunfire royal family interactions plssss.

Very Random Thought Experiment

What's something small you would like to go back change about The Dragon Prince? You can't change any major plot points (sorry off screen rayllum breakup/sunfire s4 storyline), or give any dead characters a miraculous return. (copy and paste the starter paragraph, add your thoughts, then pass it on by tagging someone whose change you want to see.)

I'll go first. I would change Opeli. She would serve the same purpose. She would oppose Viren while caring for, supporting, and advising Ezran and Callum so no major changes happen to the story.

BUT her backstory (and by extension, her appearance) will be redone. She is now Opeli, mother to Sarai and Amaya, maternal grandmother to King Ezran and Prince Callum. She will sign insults when Viren's back is turned, and when he's looking. She will hug the king and prince and tell them to be careful and make sure to eat enough; they are still growing boys. In capturing Rayla, she might seem a little too happy to have her grandson's flighty ex-gf in shackles. The scene where Gren hugs Amaya after finding her alive will be replaced with Mamma Opeli shaking Amaya by the pauldrons and shouting "What were you thinking young lady?!" (Amaya replying by signing 'you know it doesn't help to yell') while Gren looks on smugly in the background. And of course, Opeli can be seen giving Janai the side-eye when she holds her daughter's in front of the dragon queen.

@a-certain-elf -any small change you would make?

I SEE THE VISION

THIS is my Mel Medarda. if you even care 🫶🏽

Me: starts typing

Me: types for days.

Me: does so much freaking work researching and thinking through complicated plotlines and potential dialogue. Fully fleshes out a story or a concept after months of stagnation. I'm talking months of backstory and descriptions and side plots and crying.

Character: actually, I'm going to do this instead. This one little thing that destroys everything you've been working towards. And if you try to change it, or make it different in any way, I'll make your life a living hell.

Me: Or you could just... you know, not do that?

Character: ... Nah, I'm gonna.

the wait is going to kill me istg i want them backkkk

We’ll be alright

By asahiDezz on X

the realization this brought me made me cry actual tears.. [not mine]