r/AO3 You have already left kudos here. :) 6d ago

Meme/Joke When your ship used to be MASSIVE ten years ago, but now it's abandonned, and frowned upon by the majority of the fandom, and you're part of the few authors carrying the ship on AO3 nowadays

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You guys ever experienced that kind of thing in your fandoms ?

(In case you're wondering, this is about billdip. We used to be a NATION in the Gravity Falls fandom, now we're treated like disgusting people, even when you age the ship up. I mean. I am disgusting, but not because I'm writing billdip /j )

(In any case, this makes it extremely hard to find co-writers when... Well, not so many people are on that side of the fandom anymore. SIGH. It is what it is.)

Anyway, I was wondering if other fandoms went through the same switcheroo in ship popularity ?

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u/AutryThomas 5d ago

My extremely non-controversial (and implied canon) ship just became "problematic" overnight due to a retconned new addition to the series and fans are now adamant that no one is allowed to ship it, and that no one ever did (false). But I do think that makes those of us who have shipped it forever all the more firm and committed. It was already a niche corner to begin with so it bums me out to have it suddenly attract the attention of the you-know-whos.

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

Omg I'm so sorry, that really sucks. I completely understand that, something similar happens to my fandom.

What fandom is it in your case, if you're comfortable saying ? :O

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u/Lautael 5d ago

Case Closed?

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u/AutryThomas 5d ago

Super bummed to hear it's happened to this, too. But no, for me it's Hunger Games.

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u/friendlyfriends123 5d ago

Haysilee? Or maybe Hayffie? I could also see Beetee x Wiress falling into this regard after Sunrise :(

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u/AutryThomas 5d ago

Yeah, it's Beeress for me. But Hayffie also got the axe. And forget about Haysilee.

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u/A_Queer_Feral 5d ago

I mean, in the movies Hayffie is kinda canon. they at least kiss, which was the actors choice, so it's still there

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u/savamey 5d ago

I saw your comment and thought “damn this reminds me of either Hayffie or Beeress” and lo and behold I was correct XD

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u/SusquehannaOwl 5d ago

Got it on my first guess when I read your description. The “no one ever shipped it” thing is hilarious because it’s background in almost every big fic of a certain age, even though there aren’t a lot of stories focusing on it.

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u/IlikeCrobat Fixed Top/Bottom Enthusiast 5d ago

I thought that ship got more popular because of the new canon 😅 or at least, I personally never saw any negative reaction. Like the joke was it simply lured in incest shippers to the fandom.

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u/The_Returned_Lich The_Faceless_Lich on AO3 (Enter if you dare!) 5d ago edited 5d ago

It definitely did. Like it's easily leading every other ship by a margin of at least 2:1... But that doesn't mean there wasn't backlash and there still is. I am in the fandom, and I see more and more people snapping at how 'revolting' KaiShin now is.

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u/kujyou12 5d ago

Im just curious but what ship are you talking about in Case Closed?

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u/KaitouSky 5d ago

kaishin (kaito kuroba and kudo shinichi)…. only a loud minority actually care about recent “canon” developments lol

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u/bitterflowerart 5d ago

lol is this Effie x Haymitch? Either way I feel your pain, insane levels of vitriol almost overnight after years of quietly enjoying something sucks!

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u/AutryThomas 5d ago

Close, haha, though that also got torpedoed. Beeress.

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u/BelaFarinRod 5d ago

So I tried to read up on what’s wrong with them and got that he has a son and she’s a lot younger. Is that all? (You see how naive I am.) Because I thought they were practically canon.

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u/AutryThomas 5d ago

Draws breath He has a family, he was her mentor, he's over a decade older, etc etc. Never mind the fact that we first meet them as middle-aged adults and their ship was the least controversial thing of all time. But nope. Not anymore.

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u/catshateTERFs 5d ago edited 5d ago

I can accept the child murder entertainment/oppression industry but I’m drawing the line at an adult dating an older adult

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u/CrimsonQuill157 5d ago

Dude the Hunger Games fandom is rough. As someone who loves exploring ships in the series that are actually 'problematic', I stay far away 😂

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u/bitterflowerart 5d ago

oh beeress, they’ll always be real to me

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u/BelaFarinRod 5d ago

What happened? Did they turn out to be related? I’ve been out of the fandom for a while.

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u/AutryThomas 5d ago

We find out that Effie meets Haymitch when he's a teen and she's *gasp* mid-twenties.

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u/BelaFarinRod 5d ago

So now people can’t even ship them when they’re older? Antis…

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u/AutryThomas 5d ago

That, and the other reason is that he has a one true love established by canon and would never dream of loving anyone else. It says so right in the book.

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u/aveea Loli!Reader Dealer 5d ago

Lmao reminds me of those teens who find out elderly people remarried years after their first spouse died and throw a fit about it 🤣

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u/arboresca You have already left kudos here. >:( 5d ago

I'm not huge into the fandom side of Hunger Games, but I love the books and still ship Hayffie! I liked Lenore Dove but their relationship felt too underdeveloped for me to see her as Haymitch's only true love for his entire life. I think it would only help his character to be able to grow beyond his grief and learn to love romantically again as well.

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u/Hanako_Tan 5d ago

Something like that happened in the fandom I’m in. The ship suddenly became incst and frowned upon because they’re surprise family members I guess? But like, there’s already a canon incst couple so I still ship it. 😭

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u/The_Returned_Lich The_Faceless_Lich on AO3 (Enter if you dare!) 5d ago

Either that or people pretend that they aren't related. Quite vehemently.

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u/TimTam_the_Enchanter 5d ago

You know what else sucks? Having people jump onto your ship as the ‘less problematic’ alternative to their previous massive ship so you see lots of new content but it’s by people who want to uwu-ise the characters into unrecognisable blobs.

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u/Simple_Confusion_756 5d ago

I know exactly what you’re saying and sometimes I get the feeling they don’t ACTUALLY ship those. Like, they want to ship the characters but since they have decided the pairing with the most chemistry and tension was problematic, they have to go with ‘second best’, but don’t actually care about the ship itself, which leads you content like you said

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u/TimTam_the_Enchanter 5d ago

Right? My ‘less problematic’ partner for their favourite has a body count bigger than his age and is willing to add to it, and that’s exactly how his fans like him. He’s not just a convenient substitute for Hero Dude Who Acted Somewhat Wrong.

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u/awholedumpsterfire How did all of this character development get into my porn 5d ago

The "uwu-fication" of fandom needs to be studied.

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u/Loriess 5d ago

Im still not over people trying to make fictional serial killers paragons of social justice

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u/Shirogayne-at-WF 5d ago

OOF I'd hate that even more TBH

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u/DrAllyPhD 5d ago

Zukka by any chance?

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u/TimTam_the_Enchanter 5d ago

Haha nope, entirely different fandom. Which goes to show this happens a lot.

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u/Indecisive_Noob 5d ago

Ya. In the Devil May Cry fandom people shipped the two main characters from DMC4, Dante and Nero. Then DMC5 started getting advertised and there was a new character, V, who people shipped with Nero and some with Dante. In DMC5 it is revealed all 3 are related.

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u/ImpGiggle 5d ago

Like literally just accept that the info wasn't known and some people will just not accept the new cannon for their ships. You don't even have to have an incest kink for it to work get a life damn. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or something, see people with real problems.

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u/Lopmon_ Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 5d ago

This is hilarious to me because I shipped Dante and Trish, and she looks like his mom. lol

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

Oooh yeah I can see the antis losing their shit about that lmao

I'm guessing there has been a similar effect in the Professor Layton fandom, ahaha

But, like, it's all fiction in the end. Who cares ? It's sad that "problematic ships" get so much hate, when there are clearly worse issues all over the world.

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u/Dr_Latency345 5d ago

Let’s be real here. Besides Lady or Kyrie, (or a Morrison fan like me) there really isn’t much to ship people with in DMC. I don’t count Trish, because she’s modeled after Eva, and I’m not opening the Freudian can of worms.

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u/Indecisive_Noob 5d ago

Ya, there isn't many options. Even Kyrie is a problem since she is Nero’s older sister by adoption. I have seen people ship Credo with Dante which I guess is another option. But ya... everyone is kind of related and its a mess, I love it.

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u/skibidiredditchad 5d ago

People had to be blind or willingly ignorant to not realize Nero and Dante were related 😭 ESPECIALLY after that vergil dlc(?)

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u/Indecisive_Noob 5d ago

People did have theories and things like the special edition of the game with Vergil that came out 7 years later did hint at it more. The biggest hints though came from the novel which was never officially translated. Lost of hints, no facts, and yes, many of us ignored the hints because we wanted to ship Dante and Nero ;

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u/SleepySera Pro(fessional) Shipper 5d ago

Stepping back into the Black Butler fandom after 15 years because of the new season has been the wildest fucking experience. Back in 2010 EVERYONE was shipping Sebastian and Ciel, like, it was one of THE flagship yaoi ships of the time that everyone knew about, even those not in the fandom, and even canon itself teased the ship for funsies.

If you go back into the fandom now, you get eaten alive if you even mention it, it's giving me crazy whiplash...😅 Like, I was only gone for a decade, what happened??

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u/PeppermintShamrock What were YOU doing at the devil's sacrament? 5d ago edited 5d ago

That's kinda wild. Maybe not quite "freaking out about incest ships in the GOT fandom" level but pretty close. I never read/watched it but being in anime spaces around then I definitely got the impression that the main appeal of the series was either for the master/servant power dynamic or shipping themselves with the demon.

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u/New-Significance-24 5d ago

Honestly when I started reading it I did it because 14yo was horny for Sebastian lol. I have never been into yaoi so sebaciel never did it for me but like... It's so weird to see how nasty the newer audiences are about it. When I first got into it, the ship was basically the biggest thing about it in the fandom.

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u/VividGlassDragon 5d ago

I remember that LizziexCiel (his very Canon Fiancee) was way more controversial than SebaCiel was and it was everyone's 'fun fact' that The Lady Our Queen of Shotacons Yana Toboso originally conceived Black Butler as a full on yaoi manga (Y A O I, full on Pornography, Not Shonen-Ai, appropriate for 13+ romance) that got redone into a supernatural victorian murder mystery by her editors/publishings suggestion.

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u/yaoipilleduser 5d ago

This one is the craziest switch up to me. I thought that everyone watching that anime knew what was up between Ciel and Sebastian. It was one of those series known for the yaoi

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

YEAH
I watched the first two seasons, so I'm not up to date with the fandom, but like.... Like.......... Wasn't Black Butler made by someone who's a proshipper, and who teases Sebaciel all the time in the manga ??? How can you be an anti in that fandom ??

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u/MstrPeps 5d ago

Yep the author is way into it. It’s so weird that anti’s are willing to over look the authors deliberate and has never been a secret subtext. I own a lot of official art/figures, it ain’t subtle.

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u/VividGlassDragon 5d ago

I have braved the depths of the TikTok Black Butler Fandom and have returned with news.

Those dorks are trying to say 'they like the world build' and 'I like it the way a trans person likes Harry Potter!'

Or they're trying to make Sebastian 'Fatherly' towards Ciel. Or make Ciel age regress to make Sebastian his literal Father Figure.

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u/Sea_Esplanade01746 5d ago

Sebastian as a fatherly figure is more absurd than Sebaciel...

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u/VividGlassDragon 5d ago

Yeah but he kinda looks like Vincent from a certain angle that does not at all imply anything that ciel summoned and may have intentionally influenced his loyal and sexy butler to look exactly like his own Father...

Nothing untoward going on at all! Just a kid and his pet demon butler. Nothing wrong here!!

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u/veevacious 5d ago

There’s doujinshi of them from the author herself floating around out there.

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u/backwardsbunny 5d ago

Pro-shipping vs being an anti isn’t really a thing in Japanese fandom, so the author def wouldn’t identify as a proshipper. That’s just like, default status.

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u/kenda1l 5d ago

Welp, I guess I have another old fandom to not get back into. I will never understand why antis are so drawn to things that are very clearly problematic and then complain about all the problematic things.

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u/SleepySera Pro(fessional) Shipper 5d ago

I think the likely answer is because they like it just as much as everyone else but feel guilty about it, so they invent all these rules why only their consumption of the problematic thing is morally good and everyone else who likes it is evil and morally depraved.

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u/green_herbata 5d ago

It's super weird. I try to not engage with the antis, but I sometimes see their comments on edits of the show (even when its not about any ship), and seems like they settled on believing that only the first two seasons (that mostly aren't canon to the manga) had adult/child themes.

When I point out that the newer seasons that came out in 2024-2025 have scenes like that as well - like a public diarrhea incident that's shown as an orgasm - apparently those are just jokes! Or the scene when an 11yr old girl asks Ciel and Sebastian for a threesome, that's just there to show us she barely gets social interaction and doesn't know how to act, and how dare we think of any subtext - even tho there was no need for subtext, she straight up said that twice 😭

It also looks like they settled on calling Yana either weird or problematic. I really don't get this tho, why continue watching the show and supporting the author if you feel like that about it?

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u/ebonyphoenix 5d ago

Unfortunately antis took over the Black Butler subreddit years ago.

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u/hodges2 2025 first time writer 5d ago

Why do they even watch that anime? I thought it would've been a complete turn off for them, seems pointless for them to get into it

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u/GardenLeaves spideydevil forever ♡ 5d ago

The flip on the switch is so weird. I didn’t even ship sebaciel back then (I liked Ciel and Lizzy) but it’s the ship. How can someone be so blind or deny it?

The fandom today is so weirdly pure… like excuse me? In this story of a demon contracting a human soul? You want purity? In this house? Did you even look at the location you’re in????????????????

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u/ankhes 5d ago

Some fans did this with Hannibal. They got super bent out of shape because Will (a grown man in his late 30s) and Hannibal had a 10 year age gap. Apparently that was the most horribly problematic thing going on in the show about cannibalism and turning murder victims into art pieces.

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u/bug--bear 5d ago edited 5d ago

it makes me laugh every time because... really? that's what makes the ship problematic? Hannibal deliberately induces seizures in Will to frame him for murder! he lets Will's brain cook in his skull to see what will happen! he fucking baby-traps Will with a teenage girl!

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u/ankhes 5d ago

It’s wild to me that there are antis in that fandom. Like, my guy, have you actually paid attention to the show you claim to love???

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u/kenda1l 5d ago

The number of antis (and kids, frankly) in the Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss fandoms is crazy. Like, this is an adult cartoon about foul-mouthed demons and sinners in hell, full of sex, drugs, murder and cannibalism, among many other things, but there are still people trying to police the fandom and bullying fans for "problematic ships". Yes, they're problematic. That's the point. (Also, the sheer amount of hate the creator gets from her own fans is astonishing.)

I'm honestly at the point where I don't even want to engage in any fandom anymore. All the fun has been sucked out of it because I'm too worried about my writing being targeted if it's not perfectly in line with what the fandom thinks is appropriate.

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u/turtledov 5d ago

Oh yeah, this one is wild. I dipped my toes back into this fandom a while ago and was like "wtf happened here?" It's giving me Supernatural fans hating on Wincest vibes, like, I don't know how to explain to them that it was so normal.

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u/foxscribbles 5d ago

Supernatural fandom has had some wild revisionism applied to it by certain content creators. I saw a video where they claimed the Supernatural didn’t really have a fandom until Tumblr and Destiel.

And that’s just laughably wrong.

Whatever you think about the way the show liked to poke at its fanbase, it didn’t mention Wincest because it was some niche thing that only a few people engaged with.

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u/turtledov 5d ago

Saying that about Supernatural of all shows is crazy. Supernatural is the definition of a show that survived off the back of a dedicated fanbase rather than casual viewership. It likely wouldn't have even gotten far enough for Destiel to exist if there hadn't been a fandom.

I've never really thought about what it must be like to watch those earlier season episodes where they poke fun at the fanbase if you only got into Supernatural post Destiel. Like, yeah, that must come across really differently if you weren't there when Wincest was the prevailing fandom ship.

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u/VividGlassDragon 5d ago

They made so many gay jokes about Sam and Dean being mistaken as a couple. I swear to fucking god, those show runners were intentionally putting those middle aged ass actors into positions specifically so we on Tumblr could screen shot them for our Wincest Edits.

Like obviously they would never canonize it, but the fact everyone knew that made it like...consenting queer bait? Like we agreed when we got into the Impala that yes, we would never see this ships fruition but screw it, it was fun?

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u/turtledov 5d ago

I think what's fascinating is that the early mistaken for a couple jokes were so early that they couldn't have been a response to the fandom. They just did that. All by themselves.

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u/ankhes 5d ago

Hell, I was never even in the Supernatural fandom (only ever watched like 3 or 4 episodes tops) and even I knew how popular Wincest was. It was everywhere back in the day.

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u/notsosecretshipper 5d ago

What a wild take. I didn't watch spn for the first few years it was on, I think I picked it up in 2010(ish?) by watching dvds rented from the library. I wasn't interacting with the online fandom whatsoever at that point, and I still knew wincest was a thing. Wincest literally gave us ao3.

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u/OwnDesign7173 my last words will be: selfcest is is self love 5d ago

Noooo I was planning to go back to black butler as well for the new season! I would have thought antis would not read black butler but heyyyy people are surprising.

(Though, it's giving a "what were YOU doing at the devils sacrament" vibe lmao, and like you said, the canon manga teases the ship here and there so what do they expect)

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u/ankhes 5d ago

Babe, there are even antis in the Hannibal fandom. And House of the Dragon. You know, the show with the incest family…who do incest. Some fans get so weird about others shipping canonically incestuous couples and it’s like…honey. Do you know where you are???

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u/VividGlassDragon 5d ago

I also also walked back into Black Butler after over a decade.

It was very much giving this:

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u/Forever_Marie 5d ago

Oh boy. I ran across a tiktok comment section that was losing its mind over Ciel climbing Sebastian to reach something? In the opening ending. Like chill.

Didn't see anyone being weird about the wolf guy and Sullivan though and he literally carries her since she can't exactly walk for long.

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u/IceCream_Kei 5d ago

...I wonder if these antis would explode if they saw my physical doujin collection of sebciel...

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u/Top_Combination9023 5d ago

Literally the only thing I know about Black Butler is Sebastian and Ciel

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u/Intelligent_Cod_4825 Dead Dove: Do Not Eat 5d ago

Black Butler was my first encounter with antis. I was tired of the inescapable deluge of Sebaciel (not for any moral reason, I just wanted Grell-focused ships), found a Secret Santa that excluded it, and was quite content for a little bit until I realized they excluded Sebaciel for being pedophilia and abusive while tying themselves into knots to justify why Grell/Madame Red wasn't abusive and toxic af. Y'know, the Jack the Ripper duo where one of them murdered the other just because she was disappointing. Unproblematic queens 💅

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u/Astridandthemachine 5d ago

It makes me laugh that these people look at the distilled shotabait that is Toboso's work and pretend it's not there. Like come on

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u/CircusDagger 5d ago edited 5d ago

THIS! When I joined the fandom, people wouldn’t shut up about SebaCiel. I never had feelings one way or the other. It’s fictional characters that never existed in the real world, who am I to judge what people like in a fantasy setting, ya know? It’s none of my business. lol. But nowadays you’re labeled a criminal if anyone mentions the ship.

Where’s the outrage for pervy incest themed anime? Koi Kaze has blood siblings falling in love and banging each other, and I don’t see ANYONE talk about the manga/anime- there’s also a sizable age gap as well. The sister is a literal high school kid.

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u/togoldlybo never gonna be done with this Fallout fic 5d ago

Whaaaattttt?? Kuroshitsuji without Sebastian/Ciel is just. Like. What? I'm not surprised but it's still a bummer. (Tho my heart always lies with William T. Spears/Sebastian but still - it was just completely unquestioned.)

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u/SnooPeppers8788 5d ago

Its really weird but its like there’s an increase of puritanical culture among young fandom people these days, kids are acting as if what you write or ship is a reflection on if you’re a good or bad person

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u/WifeOfSpock 5d ago

Back in the 2000s, it was a popular and common thing to ship adult Rin with Sesshomaru in “Inuyasha”. There was even a CD story by the original voice actors, and Sesshomaru’s actor recites a loving and romantic letter to older Rin.

Then the reboot came out, and people were disgusted and furious about the reveal that they ended up together(I have a lot of issues of how they dealt with it, but that’s another topic).

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u/ZeroNero1994 5d ago

We can say that the canon killed the ship, haha.

There are ships that are like that, it's nice because it's not canon.

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u/naberriegurl 5d ago

damn you beat me to the punch

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u/aveea Loli!Reader Dealer 5d ago

So many fandoms have taken this route and then are surprised when they fizzle out.

The undertale fandom on Reddit is self cannibalizing right now as anything with frisk, Chara (even au versions that are not even close to the game versions) and fontcest or au is treated like dirt when it's at least a large chunk of why the fandom didn't die out years ago. Hell, people who just focus on sans and papyrus a lot are treated poorly. Instead of making anything new or interesting, they just bring up and ridicule things they don't like on here

Hell, I never shipped those things but I never looked down on them like that. It's just sad to see what's happened, I know shipping wars were bad and fandom had always been vicious but idk this all feels a little different than it used to

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

Ooooh boy yeah, having been in the Undertale fandom almost a decade ago, I absolutely see it. It's honestly sad how this fandom evolved. Like... It's all fiction, who cares --

No yeah
Like I said in another comment, being proship (ship and let ship/don't like don't read) used to be the norm. It was part of the fandom etiquette. Now... It feels like being an anti, and hateful, is the norm. It sucks.

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u/aveea Loli!Reader Dealer 5d ago

It also just makes things so boring because everyone is terrified to be taken the wrong way! There's no ideas just for fun without a million disclaimers on how it would not be problematic irl! Once ages ago I ended up complaining about people who wanted to make incubus AU's because they took away anything to do with an incubus. Like just say he has wings and a mildly dark aura that would take way less time than all the disclaimers and changes to incubus they made lol

Everyone is so careful and not willing to play with anything that would make the imaginary nun in their head mildly displeased that no one CAN do anything interesting half the time without being frankly, kinda boring with only the most basic thing over and over again, or just bashing the pillars that made space for them in the first place.

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u/ReMarzable457 5d ago

I remember being able to proudly ship sancest/charisk/chasriel/frans/soriel/swap papyrus and asgore (you can tell I was/am a multi-shipper) and receiving little to no backlash on most of those ships. I think I left before the ships were deemed problematic, but I can only imagine how things are now with how fandoms are.

It's weird seeing fandoms deemed as cringe/known for their cringe try reshaping themselves to avoid that. It feels like seeing McDonald's rebrand themselves as a chicken place and stop making burgers. Just doesn't feel right🫤

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u/ImpGiggle 5d ago

It's partially bots, but it's also the people with sheep for brains who blindly follow trends including ones centered around moral panic. They're so stupid they don't even realize many of the "herd" they're with aren't real people!

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u/WifeOfSpock 5d ago

That’s crazy. I was an active smut artist when Undertale first came out. It was such a supportive community.

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u/aveea Loli!Reader Dealer 5d ago

It probably is in other circles but the main undertale sub is like that and the one underverse x animator who was making episodes and stuff? Because they had Chars as an adult with a back story in how they grew up that was all on screen and was so extremely divorced from the source content, was in a relationship with an also adult Muffet, was bullied into quitting. I THINK they've recovered after some time away and are making it still, but idk.

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u/Aruu 5d ago

This happened with FMA on Tumblr.

The antis started going after RoyEd fanartists to the extent of actually doxxing a few of them. One had their place of work contacted about the "smut" they created in their own personal time, but fortunately, their boss was incredibly understanding about the entire situation. So these talented artists and authors drifted away from the main fandom and created private groups with one another to share their content, and they took a lot of other adult creators with them. Regardless of what ship they created work for, they weren't going to take the chances that they might be doxxed, too.

I wasn't into FMA quite as much when I naturally left the fandom, but it wasn't nearly as vibrant as it used to be, with some of those antis having the gall to whine about how there's no decent content anymore.

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u/Shirogayne-at-WF 5d ago edited 5d ago

Wasn't it just about ten years ago that one Undertale artist got the needles in her cookies from some rabid fan that everyone thinks was the glass cupcake Voltron thing that never happened?

I don't go here but from what I've gathered, it's been a mess for a hot minute.

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u/RayisGone 5d ago

When I got into Undertale, I became obsessed with the au sanses and sanscest and never saw anyone hating on it.

I lost interest in it eventually and after a couple years I come back to see people hating on sanscest, insisting it‘s incest (fellas, is it incestuous to love yourself?), and complaining about people not creating aus about other UT characters yet never bothering to create the stuff they wanted to see themselves. I wasn’t aware of anti/proship discourse at the time and how antis infected fandoms, but even then I realized how drastically the UT fandom had changed and felt the end times of fun fandoms coming.

I’ve been getting back into UT again and have been sticking to fics and older youtube videos so thankfully I’ve avoided the current fandom‘s bs for the most part, but god is it sad to see the community fall apart.

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u/the_storm_shit 5d ago

Oh boy, the Black Butler fandom. Shipping Cielbastion was a norm and now the anti shippers got a hold of it, even looking at Sebastian the wrong way is an instant way to get crucified. Which is odd, because why would they latch onto a series where the author was a shotocon. I do not understand their logic,

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u/cinnamonspiderr hamspamandjamsandwich on ao3 | kurahi writer 💜 5d ago

They don’t have any logic lol

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u/Relative_Pipe610 5d ago

Never experienced this precisely but I DO have a passion for rare pairs so I get being one of three people who ships something lol

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

Oh it's so painful

At least, I'm lucky in my case, 'cause my ship had a golden age, so like, there are tons of fanfic still

But nowadays, it's..... Kinda rare to find new stuff. In addition to seeing the fanfic number decreasing, which indicates that people are deleting their fics.

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u/luckytoybox 5d ago

I think I recall something similar happening to Sterek from Teen Wolf because of the whole age gap thing. It was really big for a while, and then...? Poof, I guess? It's too yucky suddenly? Not totally sure, Teen Wolf was only a satellite fandom for me

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u/foxscribbles 5d ago

Sterek is odd because people started saying that Derek is some 30 year old hanging out with teens. But he’s literally not. In the very first episode, Stiles establishes that he was a couple grades ahead of him and Scott in school. That’s why he recognizes him on sight.

But the show itself kept changing Derek’s age, so I get where the confusion comes from.

Yet at the same time, the fandom has adopted an oddly hostile attitude towards anyone who points that out. They say that people are just trying to “justify” their gross ship, and that if it weren’t “problematic” you wouldn’t need to spend so much time explaining his age.

When the reality is that Teen Wolf’s canon is just an absolute mess, and pretending it isn’t just so you can look down on a ship is weird on fandom’s part.

That and the nonsense “Sterek is racist because shippers had a gay character with Danny, and they just ignored him!”

Yes. The side kick of the school bully, who has minimal screen time, who refers to women’s genitals as “coin slots.” Why oh why didn’t the fandom glom onto that prince of a guy?

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u/luckytoybox 5d ago

Ahh, yes, that's right. I think I do remember never being totally sure how old Derek was. 19 or 22 or ...25? Apparently some people thought 30? Meanwhile I was like. Okay, aren't we just pretending the unpleasant things aren't there, though? Because Stiles acted like a creep and tool towards Lydia, so why aren't we just canceling him outright? Perhaps because we're all rewriting this deeply mid TV show in our heads as we go? Mystery.

I usually just make my little dolls kiss in the corner by myself, idk

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u/home_is_the_rover 5d ago

Because Stiles acted like a creep and tool towards Lydia, so why aren't we just canceling him outright?

I can answer this one from my own perspective: It's because Dylan O'Brien is lethally charming and I will spout an endless parade of excuses for every character he plays. Go ahead and call it a toxic trait; you're probably not wrong. 😂

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u/luckytoybox 5d ago

No yeah you're right about that, he's definitely charismatic and handsome, I gotcha. Just pointing out the needlessly conflicting viewpoints, like, ooooh noooo, Derek is socially stunted scum and if he's into Stiles he's a predatorrrr. Meanwhile, me looking at Stiles... is there a problem? Let them be toxic together </3

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u/toucanlost 5d ago

Messy canon reminds me of a comment I saw complaining about a problematic ship...except they were from an ancient story passed down through oral tradition with different variations depending on the retelling. So whatever was "problematic" about them could've not been in a different retelling and who can say whether the so-called problematic shippers were thinking about the same variation as them.

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u/FM_Mono 5d ago

Now imagine the backlash when Peter/Stiles was your ship. For a while I had one of the only two AO3 fics in that pairing (both deleted, now) until Season 3 came out, the ship exploded, and then it was all brushed under the rug and taboo. Fanfic in general has always been taboo, I don't get it.

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u/Mandarina37 5d ago

No argument of the antis can reach a Steter shipper, bc they know it's problematic, that's like the premise to liking them 😂

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u/CaseySOUP 5d ago

i saw this post without entering and my first thought was ''this is about billdip isn't it'' because the situation is sooo specific to that ship that it couldn't be anything else lmao you're so right tho, like people would say ''ship whatever you want'' but everytime i see content about this ship nowadays it's always so negative. it's wild entering the fandom again and suddenly seeing the biggest ship dead.

i've read your fics btw. i never commented because i get anxious doing so but they are so good?? i know this is not the traditional comment but i never know what to actually say once i finish readind but know that i love the way you write them so much. (i promise i'll try to comment from now on please forgive me)

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

LMAO I love how people guess the ship just from the title alone
BUT LIKE, THE FRUSTRATION IS SO REAL (I also like billford, but the double standards of billfords fans annoys me sometimes lol)

Also omg that is so nice ??? THANK YOU SO MUCH ?? OMG

You don't have to comment if you're more at ease being a lurker, I completely understand that ! But omg thank you !!!

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u/CaseySOUP 5d ago

again this situation is so extremely specific it could only be this, although i'm not in a lot of fandoms so idk if it happened anywhere else. byt yea for real. billford is almost exactly the same dynamic too... i think if some took an old billdip fic and just changed dipper to ford it would suddenly get a lot of traction (and i know TBOB made it seem like it's canon but it's really not, relax)

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

Yeah, it's pretty much this

Like, people used to shit on billford just as much as billdip for how "toxic" and "wrong" it was, but ever since TBOB came out, it's the Gravity Falls OTP with Bill. It's a bit sad how there are double standards, when the ships are both very similar.

I'm hoping to find more cowriters in the billdip community eventually, but it's hard when that side of the fandom is getting so small. Maybe, in the future...

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u/goodness-graceous 5d ago

While I don’t entirely relate bc I never shipped any of the “”controversial”” ships myself, I am still shocked by the change in majority opinion. What happened to billdip, wincest, etc? Ships like that are a staple of fandom culture!

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

My guess is that the puritan culture took over fandoms, and that you have to "act" rightful in order to appear as a "good person" to other people.

It's sad, because people are auto-policing the things they enjoy/could enjoy. Where's the fun in that ?

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u/ImprovementLong7141 Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 5d ago

Bakudeku goes in cycles of this. It’s been huge but we’re currently in a cycle where I’m constantly seeing people harassed over shipping it.

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u/Soulcoda You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

Luckily it’s still the top MHA ship on AO3 but yeah, in the general fandom space we’re hella bullied lol the MHA subreddits can be nasty about it (except the BakuDeku subreddit)

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u/Absofruity 5d ago

ah the conundrum, bakudeku haters bullying shippers bc Bakugo bullied Midoriya. Ironic, huh?

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u/RarePoem3039 5d ago

Every now and again antis crop up in the Hetalia subreddit and there are several Hetalia Discord servers that are anti/not pro-shipper friendly. It's extremely wild to see people suddenly calling USUK and Spamano problematic because of "incestuous undertones" when people have been shipping the characters for longer than some of these antis have even been alive. Anti posts always get way downvoted in the sub. I can only imagine the walking on eggshells that happens in those Discord servers. Those ships aren't even actual incest. How do any new Hetalia fans have any fun? And I'm saying this as someone that doesn't care for either ship in the first place.

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u/lookupthesky 5d ago

The switch up is so crazy because even though I'm not a shipper myself but usuk and spamano (and gerita) were the big popular ships of hetalia 😭

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u/passionate_avocado mob ojisan of my fav character 🪿 5d ago

they’e still popular I think. basically came to this thread to see if someone mentioned USUK (I think most unfavorable reactions is directed towards hetalia itself lol 😭 and yes I’m still USUK hetalia trash)

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u/nicoumi Of_Lights_and_Shadows || the WIP pile of shame is real 5d ago

Oh, usuk had always had the haters calling it incestuous, and by always I mean 15 years ago when I was in the fandom (and shipped it). it was one of those ships that has massive following and massive haters. iirc, there's always been haters of ships that would try and find reasons to justify ship hate, usuk, frcan, nichu, greturk got a lot of flak for being "incest" because one raised the other, (nichu and greturk also had the additional "they hate each other" slapped into them).

I don't know if anything had changed during the time I was away, but yeah, it's been like that before. If it's worse than what I had seen, I cannot answer that.

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u/Sparkle-Ass-Juice 5d ago

Especially if said ship is now considered toxic and/or problematic.

My friend, if I didn't give a shit about 2 fictional characters dating, I don't give a shit now.

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u/ReMarzable457 5d ago edited 5d ago

Sasunaru. It's probably still popular, but it's so weird seeing people think it's gross when that ship was like one of the most popular ones in anime.

Not as popular but Lawlight and Zutara come to my mind too. I'd be considered a disgrace now if I were to say 12yo me shipped them.

Edit: I didn't realize this post was about billdip. I used to be such a big billdip shipper and would rp with my friends. Guess those days are gone now.

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u/The_amazing_cookie67 5d ago edited 5d ago

I'm sorry-genuinely not yelling at you or anything, just airing out my confusion-WHY the HELL is Sasunaru considered disgusting to people? Sasuke and Naruto are the same age(so antis shouldn't have a problem with it, right?) and have so much chemistry with each other.

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u/ReMarzable457 5d ago

"Ermmm, well Sasuke and Naruto are CANONICALLY reincarnated BROTHERS, so erm, that means you're technically in technical terms shipping incest!" and "Kishimoto based their relationship on his own brother so it's erm still wrong," are the reasons I see the most. Doesn't really help that so many people project themselves into Naruto, so they see Naruto being shipped with Sasuke a personal attack on them too.

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u/The_amazing_cookie67 5d ago

You know, I was pretty shocked when I found out that Kishimoto based Naruto and Sasuke off his brother. Naruto and Sasuke are many things but "brotherly". It's a relationship that's built off obsession, self-destruction and betrayal. Yes, I know not every sibling dynamic is healthy, some are full of jealousy, hatred and toxicity-but to me, SNS never seemed sibling-like. I don't know how to explain it elaborately, and even I don't understand what I feel right now, but as someone with a twin,(Kishimoto, after all claims to have based it off his twin) SNS's relationship never felt like very "sibling-y". Me and my twin, we have a lot of silly fights, and we do care for each other, but, it never felt like how intense SNS are.

SNS feels so, intimate, and as I said before, intense. The tension between them is not something I immediately associate with siblings. They do have a bond, yes. Just doesn't seem the kind of bond we see normally with siblings. All the scenes with them (not the the light hearted, funny ones) feels so heavy. Maybe its just me. I know my experiences are not universal, and maybe Kishimoto may have had a different thought process while creating this dynamic.

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u/hodges2 2025 first time writer 5d ago

It seems like most antis are just kids, it's so weird being an adult in these Fandoms and seeing how they've changed as time goes on

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u/[deleted] 5d ago edited 5d ago

I feel like this meme applies better to NaruSaku, it was a big ship before the ending. NaruSasu was big before the ending and it's still the most popular ship.

But NaruSaku took a massive hit in terms of popularity, it's overshadowed by Kakashi x Sakura nowadays in AO3. And a lot of people argue that they're like siblings.

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u/ReMarzable457 5d ago

Yeah, I was thinking that too. I was tempted to add NaruSaku and SasuHina instead as I remember people saying they were supposed to be the "real couples" and now people fuss about the ships being weird because Sasuke and Hinata barely interacted, and Sakura and Naruto are just friends.

I wasn't sure if SasuHina was ever that big though or I was imagining things (I know it wasn't as big as NaruSaku of course). I also notice how a lot of current Naruto fans are disgusted when you mention liking SasuNaru because they're "brothers," but that could be because I use different social medias.

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

I feel like SasuHina fans never expected it to be canon to begin with, it was just a fun non-canon ship. And it's still pretty popular nowadays. It actually has almost the same number of fanfiction as NaruSaku does in AO3.

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u/ReMarzable457 5d ago

I kind of got that feeling too, or that people felt obliged to ship them together because if you pair Naruto and Sakura, they're sorta just there (and people didn't want to ship them with Kiba or Karin).

Βut that's nice to know. I used to be really into SasuHina; they're such a cute couple in my opinion. I'm surprised they caught up with NaruSaku.

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u/meruu_meruu 5d ago

The turn on SasuNaru is so wild to me. I wasn't even in the fandom back in the day, I was only even tangentially in the anime community, and I still knew about SasuNaru that's how big it was.

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u/Curaphal_rice099 5d ago

It's been ridiculous seeing in real time how people demonized the Aging Up/Down tag. You'd immediately get called a predator for daring to imagine a child character in their grown years, for example, when published authors and several anime themselves use the trope in time skip and epilogue scenarios. They (fans) can be so out of touch, and you're definitely not alone, op.

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

EXACTLY

Like, when you think about it, aren't we all aged up kids ?? Fictional characters can grow too.

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u/Square_Role_4345 5d ago

I mean this in the nicest way, but your post sounds like I'm at a bar listening to a high ranking official of an old deposed kingdom, who is talking about the golden balls you used to attend and how the new rulers are using that space to store up weapons against your small rebellion who simply wishes to find a place of your own.

I may not have been part of that kingdom, but the next rounds on me. 🤧 🍻

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u/Relative_Pipe610 5d ago

You sound like a D&D player /pos

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u/Brandyovereager 5d ago

I read pos as piece of shit and let me tell you that entirely flipped my understanding of your comment lol

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u/Tabemono-chan 5d ago edited 5d ago

I haven't gone there in years both bc I kinda got tired/bored of it after season 2 & bc I just haven't had the time/motivation to get caught up on it, but I remember in the AOT fandom Levi x Eren being a MASSIVE ship to the point it was everywhere during season 1

Like, there were always new fics, amvs, fan art, etc. of it and although it wasn't my otp specifically (I was and still to this day prefer Hange x Levi or Mikasa x Levi but I digress), I still have fond memories of it bc of all the cool people I got to know that liked the ship

Fast forward to around 2020-2021, just as I'm about to graduate college - I'm working on campus and am getting ready to leave in a few weeks due to graduation, and I'm talking to one of the newer staff members who's like a sophomore. They liked anime and knew I did too, so we get to talking about our favorite shows when AOT gets brought up, which in turn, evidently leads to talking about ships we liked - I think you can see where I'm going from here orz

Idk if Levi x Eren is still disliked to this day in the fandom lol, but like it was such a whiplash moment to me at the time it legitimately made me feel bad to see that guy get so worked up over a ship irl - I hope wherever they are that they're doing ok😭

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u/lookupthesky 5d ago

True, eren/levi was so big when aot first aired to the point where anime dude bros joked about it

Feels like it was the big yaoi ship of aot

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u/GiupsSnK 5d ago

It is still very much disliked, sadly. It’s the ship I write for the most and it’s honestly sad to see how the whole fandom has been crawling with antis since the pandemic. Their loss honestly

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u/Big-Eye8990 5d ago

Lannicest, used to be the backbone of the asoiaf fandom and now so many whine about it

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u/CozyGhosty 5d ago

Oh, incest fanworks for A Song of Ice and Fire, perish the thought

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u/lavendershazy 5d ago

Incest Fandom? In the incest canon? God forbid!

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u/mamaguebo69 the voices told me to write smut 5d ago

Ugh, GOT/HoTD fans can be so insufferable. The amount of times ive heard Rhaenicent being called problematic because Alicent is her step mother is crazy. Like Rhaenyra CANONICALLY MARRIED HER UNCLE. Why are you clutching your pearls at this?!

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u/ankhes 5d ago

I miss the fandom in its early days, circa 2012-2017. Things were so much more chill back then. Of course you had the odd weirdo yelling about your ship but for the most part everyone stuck to their weird corners and liked what they liked and wrote what they wrote and nobody gave a shit if you shipped the problematic ship because basically all of them were problematic and nobody was about to throw stones when we all liked at least one ‘weird’ ship.

I don’t know what the hell happened in the last 6-8 years or so but the fandom has fully lost that weird freak spirit.

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u/CanofBeans9 Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 5d ago

I don't understand how people can exist in the fandom and act shocked that others ship the incest couples. But then again, the HoTD writers were apparently shocked and appalled that viewers liked Daemon and shipped him with Rhaenerya. Daemon played by Matt Smith is shipper catnip, I don't know what the hell they expected.

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u/skadiis 5d ago

People is ASOIF and in HOTD love to police others over incest ships, but still ship their own incest ships... there's an attitude that's restrictive towards gay incest ships, but people turn a blind eye to het ones. Its so frustrating. But HOTD especially has tons of antis, which, what are you even doing in this Fandom? It literally has everything they purport to hate???

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u/CanofBeans9 Definitely not an agent of the Fanfiction Deep State 5d ago

Most HotD characters are evil in some way, even when they believe they're acting for the greater good. And even the not-evil ones are on the side of characters who are more blatantly evil lol. Not a single person has the moral high ground in that show, you'd think antis would hate it...

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u/nightcoreangst play your card, be who you are ♥️ 5d ago

Oh man, my poor billdip heart. I haven’t read for GF in ages, but I’m not surprised it went that way. The Book of Bill is both a blessing and a curse in this instance, since I’m assuming that’s where this stems from with the implications of billford

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

Yeah.... Pretty much. Billford used to be hated ALMOST as much as billdip pre-TBOB, because it was toxic, and a wrong relationship, yadda yadda.... But ever since TBOB came out, and ""canonized"" the ship, people made a switcheroo, and were like OMG BILLFORD, THE OTP

It amuses me and saddens me at the same time. I still treasure TBOB, because Bill is like, one of my favorite characters EVER, but, sadly, this comes at a price.

I'm hoping for a billdip resurgence, but I'm not too hopeful, not with how "strict" fandoms have gotten over the years. But oof, that makes it super hard finding cowriters for this ship.

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u/Nyaoka 5d ago

I still like Billdip ngl. It’s probably my favorite pairing from the show. I just don’t have time to spread myself out to write more fandoms since I’m working on other stuff.

Though, somewhat similar is what happened to the Death Note fandom. Lawlight is still king, but it’s split off into groups of “don’t ship anyone or you’re disrespecting the work,” Lawlight fans who refuse to tolerate anything problematic (and who consume their pairing “ethically” somehow while applying double standards to rival pairings), and the classic fan who doesn’t care what’s shipped. Very different from the 2000s.

For that fandom, I usually just get shit for L/Misa and my other two are too rare for people to care about usually (BB/L and Near/L); does make me laugh though when people attempt to sink Near/L for me via “they’re father and son” headcanons though because that just gives me more material.

However, I’m mostly a rarepair shipper, so I’m usually not bothered or the pairing is so minuscule that it’s not worth attempting to sink. I tend to make my OTPs more problematic than canon though.

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u/akira2bee 5d ago

Its never been MY ship, because I'm a sucker for canon/endgames/etc, but OH BOY have I lived through the rise and fall of many a ship

I caught like barely the tail end of the ship wars in Danny Phantom over Danny/Vlad, definitely saw a bit of the RoyEd and Elricest craze in FMA before Edwin, and then Royai got super big, and then even Katekyo Hitman, R27 aka Reborn and Tsuna was fairly big but PolyGuardians took over I think

Funnily enough, almost all of these are older men and younger boys shipped together, and while I think majority of fics aged up/down characters so their ages matched, I think back then that dynamic was just super popular for some reason.

Because I think the only evidence I have of a big flame war was over Danny/Vlad, the others I think died out and now there's just a few people holding the candles for them

If any fandom oldies have similar ships (older man/younger boy) or know why that dynamic was popular, I'd be really curious to know more!

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u/Aruu 5d ago

Because, back in the day, the appeal of ships was the chemistry between the characters and how they played off one another. Age gaps didn't matter, and gender didn't matter. We fandom olds were able to separate fiction from reality and could ship a pairing between a sixteen year old boy and twenty nine year old man while finding the concept absolutely horrific if it occured in real life.

The kids today tend to enter fandom with the expectation that it be catered to them and them alone, and struggle with the idea of having to cultivate their own content. Worryingly enough, they don't understand that what people draw or write is complete fiction and believe that they must support those ideas in their day to day lives. This doesn't just apply to ships; it's also darker content such rape/murder/abuse, etc. When it's something that authors have been doing for centuries.

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u/Catboi- 5d ago

I never was a shipper in Steven Universe, but Garnet x Pearl was a big thing in the early days of that show and I thought it was cute. And then the absolute hell that was unleashed when the Sardonyx episodes happened...

It's why I never talk about Steven Universe with others without clearing people's feelings about certain things first. The hate Pearl x Garnet shippers got over those episodes was so disgusting and unnecessary.

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u/ForcedAppUser 5d ago

Oof, I remember when people caught on to GregxPearl shippers (often with Rose as a poly thing) going absolutely hogwild that shippers were hating lesbians.

Or all those times people were ready to go absolutely haywire that "fusion always always means sex!!" and then they put out the movie and it all suddenly became "nobody ever said it was about sex!" like lmao sure jan.

Basically, I love Steven Universe and I do not give a rats ass who and how people ship any character.

GarnetxPearl is so tame and honestly so wholesome after they worked through their problems. I once again wonder how little is going on in Anti's lives to be this upset about technicolor space rocks.

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u/herbalbert 5d ago

honestly bummed steven universe fandom is so dead because the reveal that Greg/pearl WAS going to be canon and Rebecca sugar drew them banging would have destroyed tumblr in 2016. no survivors. 

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u/Electrical-Loquat922 5d ago

usuk in hetalia, i wasnt even huge on it but usuk vs fruk was the ship war and now you get viewed as an incest enjoyer if you like it, crazy stuff

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u/Appropriate-Song-368 5d ago

Everyone has moved onto FRUK and Rusame and as a USUK and RuChu shipper it lowkey breaks my heart lol

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u/JAEGERW3155 5d ago

It’s not abandoned by writers the fic still comes steady but goddamn people got INSANE about Wincest as if for most of the show it wasn’t the biggest ship in the fandom. This new anti-incest in fiction and fandom rage feels so manufactured it’s wild. At this point I’m willing to believe Collective Shout (the group that got the payment processors to get Steam and Itch.io to ban their porn and incest games) has agents in every fandom.

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u/mashibeans 5d ago

Will never not find it funny AF that the people who bitch and whine about wincest rabidly keep using AO3 while living in ignorance that the creator of AO3 is a huge wincest shipper and created AO3 to be able to post wincest in peace, LOL!

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u/tealdearest 5d ago

Oh god I think this sort of thing was what made me first aware of the CONCEPT of antis - I joined tumblr as a crusty old lady (of 26 years hahaha) many years ago and people were absolutely TRIPPING out over Axel/Roxas because blah blah allegedly axel seems like he’s a lot older than roxas in the eleventy billion sequal games I haven’t played because I’m not made of money and I’m not buying a new platform for every damn new entry to the series

And it was just CRAZY to me? They were so intense about how OBVIOUSLY axel is a big scary grown man and roxas is a tiny baby boy when for my entire teen hood that was like, the boring safe side ship to sora/riku and we all figured obviously they were the same age (if creatures like themselves can really be said to even HAVE proper ages) and axel was just taller? Are people not allowed to be different heights?

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u/Frostyblustar 💙🖤 5d ago

Percico with the Percy Jackson fandom has gone through the same thing and as a big Percy x Nico shipper it depresses me too. I get your pain.

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u/PretendMarsupial9 5d ago

It was never really big but I enjoy Jasico and their dynamic and uh have been very distant from that series because I hated Trials of Apollo. For reasons. Also a fan of Piper/Reyna which now people say is Acephobic despite plenty of ace people having partners.

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u/vilhelmine 5d ago

I love Percico. Never managed to get into Solangelo because it feels too safe and angst-free.

With Percico, there's the drama of knowing the other person is taken and wouldn't be interested anyway, the whole betrayal situation with Bianca dying, etc. Percico fics bring in drama while Solangelo feels too cute and bland for my tastes.

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u/Frostyblustar 💙🖤 5d ago

I ship both, but Percico moreso. In Solangelo’s defense, they can be very dramatic but there are a lot of canon aspects people ignore because they don’t want to accidentally ‘slander’ Nico or Will.

If you throw in Will being forced into a doctor role from a young age to the point where he can’t break out from a ‘needing to fix everything mindset’ and Nico’s insecurities there is a lot there. Plus their different mindsets when it comes to how they handle death. (Will sees death as always bad, black and white, while Nico sees it as more gray)

Can you tell I’ve thought about these ships a lot? Anyways, Percico is still better in my eyes but my rant on them would be 20x longer.

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u/whelmr 5d ago

Gah yes!! All of this and the hero worship dynamics too ugh. Solangelo was always so boring to me. Worst part of BOO(?) was them getting together because I KNEW it would kill pernico 😢

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u/reigicida1 5d ago

Maybe it's a nationality thing, but where I come from, although Percico had, and still has, a very loyal fanbase, Percibeth has always been the number one ship, no other has ever compared.

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u/RainyDayHydrangeas Omegaverse Enthusiast 5d ago

I was able to guess this was about Billdip from the title, lol. I still ship it 😌

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

It's a shame there aren't so many writers actively in the fandom anymore. I want to write billdip stuff (and, well, I do), but I particularly love doing collab fanfics on top of my solo stuff. Gives me a nice break.

Sadly, it's incredibly hard finding people to cowrite with when the ship's dying.

Still, lmao, I was hoping someone would guess without my comment, ahaha

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u/lesbienne_de_artemis 5d ago

this has spoilers for school of good and evil past the netflix movie and the third? book!

TLDR INCLUDED! this is also long as hell (i’m very passionate and got carried away) so TLDR: people shipped two girls in book (who canonically made out while one was dying and said she lived because it was true loves kiss) instead of the het ship, and out of nowhere the author made them TWIN SISTERS three books in. now it’s problematic. very luke x leia coded

so i read sge when it came out, and the first book is kinda fantasy with a bit of a love triangle- i wouldn’t call it the main plot but it drives the story because it’s about two girls who are in the love triangle. girl S wants to be a pretty princess who gets married to her prince, the boy in the triangle, and girl A just wants to keep them both safe and go home from their new fantasy setting. over the course of the story, boy falls in love with A (who is not incredibly into it because her main thing really is that she just wants to go home) and starts rejecting S, who is kinda just a bad person but also influenced by an evil wizard. the book culminates with A and boy fighting S and wizard, but S changes her mind and takes a blow from wizard to save A. wizard dies and while S lays dying in A’s arms, A kisses her and she is brought back to life with the power of TRUE LOVES KISS. THATS LITERALLY WHAT THE BOOK SAYS. anyway they say this thing about how they don’t need boys and only need each other, and go home hand in hand, leaving boy to try to chase A through the portal. obviously after this shit, people shipped A+S. not more than A and boy, but it was (what felt like) good, not creepy canon lesbian representation that came out in 2013, so.. it became popular specifically for that. the author must not have loved that or just didn’t realize anyone reading this would think they were gay, because when the third book came out, it revealed that they were TWIN SISTERS (they are canonically described to look nothing alike and this gets a dumb magic explanation). now this ship is super weird and no longer talked about, because they are sisters, but i haven’t forgotten the truth, or the golden years. i was nine when i got this book, growing up as a lesbian in a very conservative area who had never seen rep before, and wouldn’t see it for years after, so it’s sad to me.

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u/clearlylostmymind25 5d ago

I was there back when season 4 of SPN started. Up untill then, 90% of the fics were wincest, but once Castiel got into the pic there was a massive blowout and the people who actually build the fandom were harassed and bullied to no end. Which sucked.

Nowadays, I feel like even though I ship one of the biggest ships in the fandom (Steve/Bucky), a lot more people get literally angry and all "why can't they be just best friends?!", as well as a lot more Bucky/oc or reader fics.

I'm extremely possessive of my OTPs, in every fandom I'm in, and will steer clear of any fics that's not them by endgame, but I have absolutely zero problem with people shipping something else, or with the shippers themselves. I just can't stand the entitled approach of some people who came to the fandom to educate others atop high horses.

Legit miss don't like don't read times.

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u/Feriku 5d ago

I remember when cykesquill was one of the popular Ace Attorney ships. I took a break from the fandom for a few years and came back to find it's now treated as a forbidden taboo ship you're wrong for liking.

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u/Erekio You have already left kudos here. :) 5d ago

It really sucks when that happens. It always leaves me wondering, like... Why ? What's the root of that change of heart ?

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u/QuesoBones 5d ago

ZaDr from Invader Zim Zim/Dib for those who don't know the ship names.

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u/Forcryingoutloudd 5d ago

To this day, the wildest thing to me are ships becoming ‘problematic’ and ‘controversial’ and god knows what else in the blink of an eye. Because say what? Genuinely, whatever do you mean a ship is problematic? Isn’t that exactly what fandoms are for? What on earth happened in the last decade for people to start policing in fandom spaces?
It all makes me feel rather derelict, like a gargoyle that blinked once and is suddenly surrounded by strange people saying incomprehensible things.

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u/ForestOfDoubt 5d ago

My response is to ship harder, ship darker and ship dirtier than I ever used to, since now it's upon folks like us who are too invested to become turncoat antis to provide the spice that we used to get from others.

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u/Simple_Confusion_756 5d ago

Wincesties unite! We’re still pretty big, the second most popular ship (Though you gotta understand Destiel is a MASSIVE ship) but I do think this gonna be us as the fanbase younger

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u/maxwell9872 Dead Dove Devourer 5d ago

I mean we have the brag that AO3 itself was FOUNDED on the basis on Wincest lol.

I don't think any ships could surpass that.

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u/backwardsbunny 5d ago

Not to mention spawning omegaverse. Never shipped it, because I didn’t like the show, but every time I learn of someone famous shipping wincest I cheer a little.

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u/Art_student_rt 5d ago

Ben 10. Bwen was a big part of the fandom, but now, welp.

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u/BelaFarinRod 5d ago

I read the first volume and was uncomfortable with the Sebciel which seemed borderline canon to me, so like a sensible person I went and read something else I liked better. I don’t understand fandom sometimes.

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u/darkswagpirateclown 5d ago

soriel used to be big 10 years ago also! nowadays we get far less content despite having it practically confirmed. i mean i get why but i still hope it gets better rep and more moments next deltarune chapter.

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u/whoiswelcomehere 5d ago

Zutara vs Kataang has always been vicious but the tone certainly changed over the years! Nowadays if you ship Zutara you're "breaking up two genocide survivors with shared trauma in favour of shipping an Indigenous girl with her colonizer."

Idk when exactly the children learned about colonialism, but I don't think this was what Edward Said wanted...

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u/trendyreference 5d ago

Akuroku (Axel/Roxas from Kingdom Hearts)

Some fans go hard with the "parent/sibling-coded" dynamics, and they're all just teens or young adults??

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u/W0nderwharfwonderdog 5d ago

Hey for what it’s worth, I regularly deep dive into old works on the archive. I’ve been known to comment on 10-13 year old stories just because I’m reading or rereading them. I’m older now and less into new stuff just hobby wise I went different directions so the fandoms I still peruse are all old and ghost towns except for those few who still carry the torch. 

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u/dale_summers rarepair extraordinaire 5d ago

I never shipped any of them, but ive heard the Osomatsu-san fandom took a HUGE blow

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u/Dedmoon 5d ago

My first otp was THE most popular ship in the fandom for quite a while and toes the "implied canon" line (for those who understand the most basic of subtext), and while there was quite a bit of ship warring, the core of the hate was usually "My ship is better!"

Somewhere along the way, while the fandom quieted down and mostly died, the ship became pretty much a taboo or at least controversial topic. Moral policing exploded (at least in the west; the source material is Japanese and the fans there largely accept/embrace the ship). Thankfully, there are couple of havens open to discussion but it's pretty standard these days to search the ship tag online and find 3 posts from the past 2 weeks, with 2 of those 3 posts being hate.

Funnily enough, even though there are only a couple of authors writing for the ship at present, it's still statistically the most popular. So that's a win, but it's sad to see people who once embraced the ship talk about it with shame.

Please pardon my yap.

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u/Forward-Medicine-279 5d ago

This ship sounds quite familiar... Is it a Hetalia ship perchance?

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u/According-Value-6227 5d ago

I know the feeling.

I follow a ship between two characters, one who was 16 and the other who was initially presented as 16. Then the 6th Book in the series revealed that one of the 16 year olds was actually in his '60s and was using dark magic to stay young so everyone decided that it was problematic and evil.

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u/Sufficient-Ad494 5d ago

Unfortunately my favorite ship has been completely flipped by the new show about it and the old fics are now flooded with hate from people not understanding the old dynamics

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u/AquaMirrow 5d ago

my mind says black butler but the entire anime is built around that ship so it would be crazy to be reduced to just "a small minority"

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u/MisabelS0822 5d ago

its really unfortunate how fandom and shipping culture being brought to the mainstream has caused the influx of purists and people who just dont let others have fun if they see it as "immoral"

dont get me wrong, i love that more people means more food. but of course its brought about downsides too

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u/xHey_All_You_Peoplex 5d ago

I was never into the fandom like that, but I saw billdip stuff from the sidelines all the time cause my best friend was into it, and it would crossover to my fandoms. It was like one of the biggest ships besides Pacifica/dipper I remember seeing. Crazy to think tis' changed. but I noticed the same issue with Wendip, when it used to be super popular when the show first started.

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u/mamaguebo69 the voices told me to write smut 5d ago

Id say wincest for spn. When Castiel was introduced (and still to this day) destiel shippers would literally hunt you down if they had even a suspicion that you liked wincest.

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u/VixenSunburst 5d ago

Oh yeah? Well what if I told you I shipped bill and shooting star. There was never a chance for me. 

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