Too invested in Fiction

Figured I'd make a pinned post for new people coming to my blog:

I'm Molten, I'm a women who gets really invested in fandom content I'm into. Largely this is Mass Effect and Dragon Age related but I do have other fandoms that crop up occasionally.

I list all of my own art under "#moltentarts" and try to tag each series fanart as fanart from that series specifically. (Ex: rwby fanart, bg3 fanart, etc.)

I'm fully open to asks and have anon on for those who want to use it.

Note as well: I won't tolerate or accept racism, homophobia, transphobia, or ableism on my blog. I do the best I can to avoid people who post or hold those view though sometimes I miss it so if I reblog something from someone who agrees with any of that let me know.

Kofi link for commissions and merch:

Was looking through some ruehob edits because I enjoy their romance only to see comments of people going "their romance felt weird so on my headcanon they break up" like??? Okay, make your own post.

It's fandom etiquette not to go on ship posts and be negative about them if you don't enjoy them. Keep moving and mind your business.

This isn't even specifically just at this ship but ships in general in fandoms, not every part of fandom space is for you and you need to stop acting like it is.

Honestly my favorite thing about dimension 20 is how carefully the DMs choose players for their games. Because I have yet to see a series where the players aren't thriving and enjoying themselves the whole time.

A court of fey and flowers gives us players indulging in drama and romance.

Never stop blowing up has a cast who are letting their inner child control their actions in the most delightful way.

Of mice and murder gave us a cast who matched each other's energy and humor the whole time.

And even in the main intrepid hero games, brennan crafts stories that the six always fit so well in.

Sure some series might not be for everyone, but none of the players ever feel out of place.

Side note because I see it in tags when I go: when you guys are interacting with fandom spaces please have a level of courtesy and make sure you're tagging appropriately.

If you're hating on a ship/character/series don't just throw it into the main tag. All you're going to do is make fans of something angry. Direct tagging to me feels like people begging for others to fight them and to start discourse and it's just a scummy thing to do.

Note: I'm not saying you can't be critical. I'm not saying you can't hate something. But if all you're doing is shitting on something that you personally don't like, it's incredibly rude to invade a positive space.

I'm halfway through right now: but I think what makes the slow build of Rue and Hobb work so well in a court of fey and flowers is not only how well crafted the miscommunication between these two people is (I'm a sucker for it I don't care) but also how deeply ingrained both of them are into this belief they are undeserving of their own desires.

Two people putting duty before all else meet and see in each other something they wish they could have leading to immediate and deep emotions only to understand each other as time goes and combat following their own desires for the first time or sticking with what would be acceptable for their status.

The knight and the noble. Fantastic.

Honestly the most tiring thing about people who hate jaymel/Mel Medarda is the way you can tell they never actually paid attention to the scenes between her and Jayce, or even Mel on her own.

I just saw someone say they jumped in bed too fast and could've been great friends if they didn't.

Okay sure let's ignore that it was nearly a decade of companionship before they did something physical. Because they don't sleep together until the time skip happens.

"Jayce didn't have to apologize for getting angry at her and insulting her" yes he did. Because he was wrong and knew he was. Him and Viktor initially approach mel specifically because they want her to invest in their work and over the next many years a proper friendship grew and so did feelings. Her relationship with jayce wasn't a manipulation. There would've been no benefit to her manipulating him with romance at that point. Maybe if she'd done it right when they met yeah we could talk about it. But she built trust over years and acted on her emotions. She treats Jayce differently from everyone else in the show, and Jayce similarly did love her. A man who puts science first choose to stay with Mel.

It's fine not to ship them. But I'm genuinely tired of people invalidating anything they had to boost other ships. Mel is consistently dogpiled in this fandom and she's never done anything that deserves the level of hate she gets.

Controversial maybe: I'm actually happy that Tenzin and Lin broke up. Not that I necessarily think Pema and Tenzin are the perfect couple. But it was so clear Lin never would've been someone who wanted to be a mom, she's not a kid person. Meanwhile Tenzin both felt he needed to be a dad, and in a lot of ways clearly loved being one.

I think one of them would've had to sacrifice for the relationship to continue as it was and it wouldn't have been fair to either.

I think that's why I also do like Kya and Lin as a concept. Because they're similar in many ways, and with Kya being middle age without children, I think it's pretty clear she, similar to Lin, had no interest in being a mother.

I will also say: I do think the writers portrayed Tenzin and Pema better as a couple the further the show went on. Season 1 really did provide the worst content for them. Though in general most of the couples in that season were super messy and very much not right together.

People got real pressed about me saying Langdon isn't the people's princess and told me to "stop policing fandom spaces" Buddy I'm on my blog minding my business. I'm not harassing anyone or bothering other people. That's you.

People are really trying to call Langdon the people's princes as if half the cast doesn't exist.

Mel is easily the best in the new group with her ability to handle both the emotional and medical side of treating patients. She's also adorable and sweet.

Whitaker is a big softie who is trying his best and having the worst day if we want a male character who could fit the title.

Javadi is trying her hardest and learning as she goes, she makes mistakes but she's the youngest in the cast and similar to Mel, absolutely adorable.

Dana keeps the ER moving so smoothly and we've been shown how rocky things get when she's not on top of things. Let's not pretend a single person wasn't ready to fight Doug Driscoll after he punched her.

Collins has been going through it and trying her best, she's smart and capable, a gorgeous woman.

And for one other male option: Robby.

There are so many characters that would fit that title far before Langdon.

Something I appreciate about The Pitt is the consistency with the characters. I've mentioned that I love Santos. And I am also fully aware of her flaws. It's been great to see her settling in as she adjusts over the shift but even still portions of her habits come through.

She's still not sure how to deal with the emotional aspect of patients so instead she focuses on the medical portion she can handle. She gets excited about new procedures and trying out things she knows because she does want to prove herself.

However her confidence didn't stop her from acting appropriately, she sought out an attending and only acted when the situation was too dire to ignore it. I know people want to get angry at her over it but her being commended for her intelligence and quick actions is good.

"It'll inflate her ego" her ego has been getting checked properly, she has a level of confidence that I think might be a bit high but is also exactly what they often need in these tense situations.

One aggrevating thing about the fandom is how little they want to engage with her being a mirror of Langdon. All his character traits are hers, and I know people are going to go "it's because she's new" and sure maybe. But you can't deny that there is misogyny in how people interact with female characters. Male characters like Santos are more often given the space to exist like that and them changing over time is not met with the level of resistance that I see when it comes to Santos.

"They're trying to make us like her" I think they're just depicting a person with flaws who is capable of changing and doing better and you're so stuck on who she was that you're unwilling to accept she can be better. They aren't even pretending like she's all new, they're just showing that she can adapt.

Alright New Avatar show theory time:

I think it should be pretty clear for anyone who knows TLoK and AtLA that the set up of "Korra destroys the world" isn't going to be accurate. Or if it is, there is some puzzle piece we're missing of what happened that caused such a catastrophic change.

My current working theory is that Pavi spends a good portion of the show trying to connect with Korra, only to receive visions that reinforce the idea of Korra being an enemy of mankind. Anyone who likes Korra as a character knows how hard she takes perceived failures and I fully believe it's a kiyoshi moment of bearing responsibility for something that wasn't even really your fault. If the show is 2 seasons I can see season 1 being the build up to the reveal of what happened and season 2 is Pavi trying to reveal the truth and right wrongs.

I want to say for anyone who will claim it: I'm not trying to woobify Korra or claim she's flawless. But Korra has grown enough to aim consistently for the outcome that causes the least pain. She's not overly violent or destructive. I think whatever happened was out of her control and she did the best she could with what she had.

That said I'm very excited to see how Pavi differs from Korra and what ways she will alter the story.

People really calling me a pick me for liking female characters that the fandom hates. If they were white men I wouldnt have to defend my enjoyment of them. But because they aren't if they're even somewhat flawed I need a 50 page essay on why I don't condone their actions and how people are allowed not to like a character but that I enjoy them critically.

I made a post about female characters who I love that get hated in fandoms and the way it always unfortunately surprises me that they are and it's so obvious people who hate these characters are missing my point about the post.

"You can like Mel while acknowledging her flaws" yes I outright admit these characters have flaws to them. But we can't pretend the level of hatred she gets has nothing to do with her being a black woman who has a romantic relationship with Jayce. People demonize her actions so much and frankly, as someone who has been in tons of fandoms with heinous female characters, she has done nothing to deserve the level of hatred she gets. I can't have a conversation about her depth and nuance because most of my time I'm defending her against bullshit claims people pin her with while they baby Viktor or several other characters in the fandom who do worse than her.

People continuously claim "Korra has no depth" while ignoring how deeply she changes between season 1 and season 4. Like you can't look at how she deals with kuvira or even how she carries herself in season 4 and tell me Korra is the same person. People make all these claims that are easily disproven if you watch the show but they're so far up their own ass in opinions they just spread around lies people constructed about TLoK. And this is without getting into how Korra is a textbook shounen protagonist who is hated for the very traits most male characters are applauded for.

Yes I acknowledge Sakura isn't a super deep character, her biggest flaw is being written by a man who doesn't respect female characters who can't see them beyond romantic interests. But when she does have deep moments, such as her telling Naruto she loves him to try and stop him and Sasuke from hurting each other, people choose to believe it was a purely malicious act with no depth. Like I genuinely think people who hate her for that wouldn't be able to handle Sakura if she was written with half the depth of most female characters.

Ashley is constantly labeled racist by the mass effect fanbase who treats Garrus as flawless and perfect when he's way worse than Ashley throughout the entirety of ME1 and ignore the nuance of why Ashley is wary of aliens at all.

You are allowed to not like these characters. There are countless characters I personally don't like regardless of how well they're handled in the series or what role they play. But we can't pretend the hatred for female characters isn't often rooted in Misogyny when male characters in the same fanbase who are super similar to them get love and adoration. When male characters who do far worse are given passes and babied. And more than that, we can't act like in the case of Mel, there isn't a racism element at play.

The frustrating thing about liking female characters in fandom is you ALWAYS have to justify why you do. You can't simply enjoy one, they either have to be good enough to be valid, or come with an essay length explanation that you don't condone them and know their flaws but like them anyway.

People upset over Ashley/Kaiden for not being super chill with reanimated, working for Cerberus Shepard are kind of funny to me because like, imagine it this way.

Your best friend/potential romantic partner dies. Before they died you came across a weird off brand white supremacy cult who experimented on people in such horrific ways that it appalled anyone you talked to. You and your friend were also close to people who would've been targets of this cult.

Cut to 2 years after your friend is dead, and suddenly an exact replica of them shows up one day while you're at work during a stressful time, and you find out they've joined the fucked up cult and are in fact potentially trying to tell you "they're not that bad".

Tired of the double standard the mass effect fandom has for Ashley and Garrus. Heck even Tali to a degree. Yes, Ashley is distrustful and wary of aliens, which is completely fair since not only had it been only 25 years since the Human/Turian war that Turians initiated, but humans as a species are still struggling to even get a foothold. The council regularly and continuously treats human lives as disposable and lesser then in all 3 games and often the represent a pretty large group of their species when they do.

When she makes the dogs comment she's comparing humans to dogs as Aliens see us. And the council repeatedly proves her opinions correct. But over the course of ME1 every single companion has their opinions challenged by members of the crew.

Now compare this to Garrus who by the time ME3 rolls around fully apologizes to Tali for how badly he treated her in 1. Garrus who approves and initially defends the Genophage. He's a young cop who thinks he doesn't have enough freedom to enact his own personal brand of justice and that's why he leaves his original position. I want to state: I do love Garrus. But there's this rose tinted view of him when he was even worse than Ashley in 1 with a lot of biases his people spout. Turians largely help lead the galaxy.

Tali for most of the games spreads around this rhetoric of geth being murderous and dangerous and even after discovering her people lied, she still views them as inherently dangerous and the problem.

"Ashley kills wrex" you know why? Because you haven't completed his companion side quest to earn his loyalty and his plan was fully to take you down. He was going to kill you. It's only if you complete his side quest that he stands down and listens to reason. Ashley is defending Shepard when she kills Wrex. Is it still upsetting? Sure. But you can't act like you as the player bear no responsibility when Wrex in this version has no loyalty to Shepard and was putting his own interests fully first.

Ashley is a flawed person, she willingly admits this. But she's also rational and complex. Her family fought in the war and her father has first hand experience of the horrors faced in it. When she speaks it's because she's been raised to understand aliens don't have human interests at heart. It is the players responsibility to help her change. Just like with literally every companion in games like Mass effect.